Acceptance
by shh
Summary: When an illusionist is welcomed to Xavier's Institute, problems arise due to a crush she has on an older XMan, a growing relationship with Pietro, the awkward stage of her mutation, and her clashing personality that some consider egotistical.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X-Men: Evolution. That's it.

**Chapter One -- **

"Did you hear yet?" piped an excited Kitty Pride. Not waiting for Scott to answer, she said as if it were her life long dream, "A girl from _Orange County _is moving in. You know what that means, don't you?"

The only response she got was an irritated groan.

She plopped herself onto the living room couch, and squealed, "I'm gonna, like, be friends with someone from the O.C.!"

A laugh escaping from his thin lips, Scott said, "You know, Kitty, just because she's from Orange County doesn't mean she rolls around with Misha Barton or whoever is in that stupid show you're always watching, and what makes you think that she's even going to like you?"

"Well, who else is she going to, like, bond and stuff with? It's not like anyone else around here likes going to the mall or doing any of that kind of stuff."

"You really ought to stop that whole stereotype thing," Scott informed her, starting up the tall, luxurious stairs, feeling that this conversation was not worth wasting any more of his precious time on. "We might need to rush you to the emergency room after you figure out that she has five facial piercings and worships Marilyn Manson."

"Ew!" Kitty shrieked, wearing a disgusted look on her face. "Scott, is that true? Scott! That _so_ can't be true! Scott! Get back here!"

Meanwhile, thousands of miles across the country, an infamous gold digger named Delia Parker purred, "So, what brings you here, is it… _Professor_ Xavier?" She was sitting in a love seat, located in the living room of her beachside mansion.

After clearing his throat, he replied, "Yes. Well, what has brought us here—" Professor X shifted his eyes over to Logan, who always came with him to recruit, serving him as some sort of body guard. "—is your daughter. I believe her name is Brianna? We are from a school of mine. It is a safe place for teenagers with… gifts. There, we teach young people how to control their mutations, and, eventually, if they choose, to use them for good."

Mrs. Parker raised a newly waxed eyebrow as she was handed a brochure. After skimming through the small booklet, and taking a sip from her large, martini glass, she said, "Well, it looks very impressive. I can't really say, though, because I let my baby girl make her own decisions." She took a pause, and shouted, much to their surprise, "BRE! GET DOWN HERE, PLEASE! BRE!"

"_Mother_!" Brianna shouted as she slinked down the spiraling stairs, and told the person on the other end of her cell phone that she needed to go.

When she laid her soft green eyes on the man sitting next to the guy in the wheel chair, her attitude was tamed and she took a seat next to her mom.

As the Professor explained how wonderful his school was to the sixteen-year-old girl, she continued to gaze towards Wolverine. One could tell that there was something about Logan that had her intrigued, but the man himself didn't seem to notice, taking her staring as her inquisitiveness towards him. He thought that she was probably just wondering what he was doing there, since he hadn't spoken a word since she got down.

Once Xavier stopped his talking, he looked at Brianna as if she had been listening and was capable of making a well-informed decision on whether she wanted to live with him and his followers.

When she looked at him, rather blankly, Charles decided to tap into her mind. Normally, he didn't like to read people's thoughts unless they had given him permission, but in order to see why she was looking so blank and what he could do to change that, he felt that was what he needed to do.

Deciding that it was best not to repeat what he had just heard her thinking, not wanting to embarrass the young girl or Logan, Professor X smirked, pretending he had not used his telepathy at all, and asked, "Well, Brianna?"

Brianna's eyes swiveled from her mom, to the man with the black hair, and to the man without hair. She had caught the gist of what the latter had been saying, and her mouth stretched into a grin as she agreed to go with them, to 'the Mansion.'

Once the brief discussion over when they were going to pick her up had been finished, Brianna made her way back up to her room, where she began thinking about how pleasant this whole part of her life was going to be. Soon, she would be on her way to Bayville, New York… a place where she was no longer going to be frowned upon for her illusions. Her mutation was going to be embraced for the first time in her life, opposed to being hidden to the best of her mother's abilities.

Around five, the very next afternoon, after hours of stuffing her Louis Vuitton suitcases full of, for the most part, useless luggage, and then sobbing over the telephone with all of her closest friends, telling them she would be leaving, Brianna pecked her mother on her plastic cheek and was on her way.

The entire plane ride to New York was, in her opinion, a wreck. Although Charles Xavier had purchased first class tickets, they happened to be scattered away from one another. Brianna was placed next to a middle-aged businessman who reeked of cologne and constantly questioning her on 'how things were going in her life.'

She was hoping to have a seat reserved next to Logan, so she would be able to get to know the rugged, real bad boy type of guy. Instead, the closest she got to communicating with him was accidentally brushing up against his muscular arm as he took his seat, which happened to be located directly in front of her own.

Brianna really wished that they had taken that jet the Professor was talking about. But, before boarding the plane, he told her how difficult it was finding somewhere legal for the 'Blackbird' to land, and how they only used it for emergencies, anyways, so they were forced to take a plane.

At least she got a window seat. Brianna trained her eyes on the ground beneath them, running her long fingers through her elbow length, deep brown hair occasionally.

Apparently, she had a worried expression plastered across her face, because the slime ball next to her asked her what was bothering her a couple of times.

The second time, she plainly retorted that she was fine. Most people know that when you're 'fine', in reality, you are not doing so great, but the man seemed to take it as an all right answer, and stopped asking her if she was okay or not.

Brianna Ranae Contreras was not the type of person that enjoyed showing weakness, and she was _definitely_ not the type of person who was about to confess to a complete stranger that she was worked up about moving somewhere new… a place that was probably completely different from California.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X-Men: Evolution. :D There.

Chapter Two – 

"I just don't think she's gonna fit in here," was Bobby's two cents on 'the new girl.' "Not that many kids around here are gonna take that 'look at me, I have money' crap."

Jean disagreed, saying that it was more likely for the teenagers of Bayville to cling onto Brianna once they discovered how much money she had been born into. One thing led to another, and before any of her peers knew it, Jean had gone into lecture mode about how materialistic kids their age could be.

Before she was able to finish, Jean was cut off by the murmurs that followed the sound of the entrance door creaking open.

Xavier had telepathically told all of the teenagers at the Mansion that they had just got off of the plane and would be arriving shortly. That had happened nearly an hour ago, so that _had_ to be them.

Sure enough, when Kitty peeked out from the kitchen, where the discussion over the new mutant had just taken place, she saw a girl standing with Professor and Logan, taking a look around the front room.

"Wow!" Kitty said to the others in a high-pitched whisper. "She's just like I thought she would be." She gave Scott an icy glare before continuing with, "Gosh, Scott, you're, like, such a dork sometimes! If she's a Marilyn Manson-worshipper, I don't know that the world has come to!"

Next, Shadowcat phased through the wooden door that separated her from the girl that had the potential to be one of her very good friends. She was displaying that materialistic attitude Jean had just been blabbing on and on about, already thinking that this girl had to be awesome just because she had come from a place like Orange County, where everyone had tons of money.

"Oh, hey!" Kitty rubbed the back of her neck, and gave a ditzy snicker, as if she hadn't expected them to be there.

Eyes widening, Brianna let out a silent, "Whoa." She'd never seen another mutant before – well, scratch that – she'd never seen another mutant use their powers before, and it was a little startling.

"Hello, Kitty," Professor Xavier greeted her. "Why don't you take Brianna up to her room? It's the one to the left of Tabitha's."

"Like, no problem, Professor!" After Xavier had wheeled off, with Wolverine at his side – probably entering the kitchen to tell the rest of them to act welcoming towards Brianna as she settled in – Katherine Pride flashed her a friendly smile, and leaded her up the staircase and into her new room.

Once Brianna had set her things on the floor, and vainly checked herself out in various angles through her new mirror, Kitty complimented, "Wow, you're so tan. But, I bet everyone is down there in California, huh?"

Brianna cracked a slight smile. "Well, I'm half-Mexican, so, it doesn't really have anything to do with the heat. It does look nice, though, huh?"

Kitty crinkled her nose. She decided against paying any more attention to the girl's Texas-sized ego, and went on with her questions. "So, what brings you here?"

"Hm?" she muttered, confused with the valley girl's question, and finally tore her eyes away from her reflection, with a bit of reluctance, so it was easier to talk to Kitty.

"I mean," the other girl clarified. "Like, what's your power? _You know_."

She sighed. "Oh, you haven't heard? I thought **everyone **must know about me."

"Tell me about it," Kitty had said, although it wasn't needed, because Brianna had already began explaining.

"Well, a few months ago, my powers just started going… psycho, and I was walking past this play ground, and these kids started freaking out. It took me a second to realize that I was using my illusions. Anyways, I tried to stop, but I couldn't take control in time. Turns out, I was putting a picture of everything turning monstrous into their minds. One kid got so scared that he hasn't been able to speak ever since."

"That's, like, terrible!" Kitty gasped. "I know what you're going through, though. We all do. We've, like, all felt like we couldn't control our powers. You're in the right place."

Brianna folded her arms over her chest. "Yeah, I guess. I think I have it under control now, but what's worse is that they showed the story on some major news show. Of course, I didn't get in any trouble, because it wasn't my fault, but I wasn't able to show my face for the longest time."

"Well," Kitty said, searching for the words that could comfort her. "I'm sure no one around here, like, remembers. I mean, I, like, didn't even know."

Brianna shrugged both of her shoulders. She wasn't sure if she liked this girl or not yet – she seemed a little air headed, but she decided to remain nice, seeing Kitty was being pretty kind to her and all.

Plus, ditching her was always an option, later down the road, if anyone better popped up at Bayville High, or, even, there at the Institute. It wasn't as if she had vowed to be her best friend or anything yet, just by talking to her first.

And this was a good chance, if any, to get some more information on Logan.

"So," Brianna said, plopping down on her new bed. She noted that she would have to go out and buy a new comforter as she did so. "Tell me about this Logan guy."

"Ah!" Kitty grinned, sitting down next to her. "You think he's hot, don't you?"

Brianna just stared at her, instead of replying, deciding that it was best not to give out that information yet. She knew that if she continued doing this, Kitty would start telling her more about him. And, she was correct.

"Well, like, don't feel bad about it or anything. I think every girl that goes here has, like, had a crush on him at least once."

"Has anyone ever acted on it?" Brianna wondered, with a strong hint of mischief in her voice.

"Like, no way! At least, I don't think so. I mean, he's a total Hottie in that dark, mysterious way, but he's way too old for any of us. That kind of stuff is, like, illegal, isn't it?"

"Maybe so, but I have a feeling that I'm going to need a **mature **guy, with this big move and all." Brianna's lip curled in satisfaction as she saw the shocked, yet curious look that had dawned on Kitty's face. Wanting to keep her wondering as to what her next steps would be, Brianna was quick to change the subject. "So, when are you going to introduce me to the rest of you guys?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **You know, I still do not own X-Men: Evolution. Wow.

P.S. If you read – how about reviewing, hm? It would make my day.

Chapter Three – 

What was happening? This was a Sunday… and Brianna was never to be woken up early on Sundays. It was one of the few days that she had to relax, and to sleep in until two in the afternoon.

Once she slammed her fist on her alarm clock, she took a glance around, and realized where she was. It was probably part of their whole routine to wake-up early and… do whatever it was that they did, even on weekends, but Brianna couldn't help but be angry with everyone else for failing to warn her.

When she forced herself up from bed, her eyes darted to the digital clock that sat on top of her beside table, next to that big, gaudy lamp. She hadn't bothered to look at it yet, but she could have guessed what it said. It clearly read in flashing red numbers that it was '7:02.' What were these _lunatics _thinking? Nobody should have to wake up at this time on the weekend, unless they had a job or something like that.

"Ugh!" Brianna complained as she made her way down the hall, since that was what the other kids were doing. She had to contain her laughter when she caught a glimpse of some of the others' pajamas.

She looked down to see what she was wearing, and realized that she didn't exactly look put together, either, but at least she wasn't sporting a pair of Care Bear bottoms like that tall redhead was.

Before she had even finished down the hallway, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whipped her body around to find that it was only Kitty.

"Whoa!" said Kitty, removing her hand from the girl's shoulder. "What's with the, like, jumpiness?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Brianna didn't really feel like telling Kitty how she had been a little frightened about hearing that people had broken into the Mansion before, in hopes of doing harm to the mutants that lay inside, fast asleep. "I'm… always like that in the mornings."

"Hah, then I guess I should tell you that I, like, always look this bad in the mornings." She laughed at her own joke.

Brianna just smirked. She knew that Kitty had been expecting her to tell Kitty that she didn't look bad, or that it was okay because she probably looked equally as bad, but that, in Brianna's opinion, would be lying, and she always told herself not to lie, even if it was to make someone feel better.

"I bet you're really, like, glad that you get another day to stay around here before you go to school, right?" Kitty asked, as they claimed their places at the table.

"It depends on what we're doing."

And, as if he had heard what she had just said, Logan informed everyone that it was high time that they took a trip to the Danger Room.

"Danger Room?" Brianna repeated, turning to Kitty for an explanation.

"Oh, it's like, a blast," Kitty said, sarcastically. "Well, there's really no way to explain it, so I guess you'll just have to wait and see. You'll be with the younger kids, I'm pretty sure… since you're new and all. Their training is less… kind of, like… uh, challenging."

This made her stomach tighten. It was her first day – she didn't even know if she had power over that on and off switch that came with her gift.

So, she felt as if the world had been taken off of her shoulders when the Professor got into her head once again, his deep voice telling her to follow him after breakfast was over, for a 'private training session.'

Nothing of much importance had happened throughout her first breakfast after that, except for Brianna working up enough courage to talk to Logan, when she spotted him soaking his pancakes in honey.

"Honey?" she questioned, finding this a little odd.

"Yeah," he said in his growl of a voice, not even bothering to look up from his meal. "I put it on everything."

She just nodded, and turned her head to see the smile on Kitty's face. The others probably took this as casual conversation, but, Kitty, knowing about her little crush, took her talking to him as the first **baby step **towards Brianna's ultimate goal.

After her private session with Professor X, Brianna had become exhausted. It had taken her such a long time just to get her powers _working_, and, to her horror, the bald man told her that they were going to continue these sessions until she could use her mutation at her discretion. He told her that once she could do this that the random illusions would stop. And, once those stopped, there would never be a chance of the whole playground incident repeating itself. Her being upset had probably only added on to her exhaustion – she was so worked up because, when she didn't even try to use her illusions, they could be powerful, but when she did try to create them, they were weak as a young child's knock-knock joke.

The whole continuing the sessions thing was a good thing-bad thing type of deal. It would be pleasant to have control over her powers, instead of them controlling her, but it would not be pleasant to keep on going through those intense sessions. She wished there was an easier way out.

All of the other kids her age around here could manipulate their powers just fine – so why couldn't she? They weren't any better than she was! Actually, she held herself on a higher pedestal than any of the others, as bad as that was. So, what gave them the advantage of having control, and not her?

One of the other girls – Jubilee – tried to strike up a conversation after she saw Brianna walking out of Professor X's office. But, Brianna wasn't interested, moodily grunting to everything she had to say, until she let her be.

Brianna really hadn't meant any harm to the other girl, but she was ready to head up to her room, bury herself in her blankets, and sulk. She felt like the conversation had been stopping her from doing so, so the only way to make her shut up was by acting aloofly.

In her mind, she was never doing any wrong by acting the way she did. She always blamed it on something, or had an excuse for acting that way. It's funny, because she actually believed herself to be a good person, obviously seeing herself differently than the people that surrounded her.

Once she had got the chance to finally sulk, it didn't go so well. Everything was perfect – she had on her nicest pair of silk pajamas, the lights were off, and her covers were pulled up to her neck, but instead of her mind clearing, allowing her to doze off from there, she found her mind wandering.

What if the Bayville kids didn't like her? She knew they would, or at least thought she knew… she couldn't think of a single reason why someone might dislike her, but there was still that possibility. And, that possibility, as little as she estimated it to be, ruined her entire Sunday afternoon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I own jack squat.

Chapter Four -- 

"Who's that blue guy?" Brianna hissed into Kitty's ear as they approached Bayville High School.

"Who – Kurt?" Kitty hadn't bothered to keep her voice down, like Brianna did her's. "Yeah… he's kind of freaky at first, but, like, give the guy a chance. He's, like, a total sweetheart, and it's not his fault he's like that, you know."

Brianna crinkled her nose. Maybe it wasn't his fault that he looked that way, but she still couldn't help but have chills running down her spine whenever he transported into the room – she wasn't used to blue people yet.

"Is there anyone else like that?" Brianna asked. "You know, not normal looking?" She hadn't had the chance to really become acquainted with everyone, because she only stepped foot outside of her room a couple of times.

After thinking on it for a second, Kitty replied, "Yep, Beast. He's blue and furry, too, but he's totally cool. He used to work here, you know… but that was before he transformed. I haven't seen, like, much of him lately, though… probably locked up in his room reciting Shakespeare or something like that."

"Hm." Brianna appeared to be uninterested, looking off somewhere else. Kitty followed her gaze, only to find that she had just got her first look at the Brotherhood.

"This school is packed with mutants, isn't it?" boomed Brianna's voice as Toad caught a fly with his enormous, green tongue.

"Not really. It's just _them_, and us as far as I know, anyways. But, like, they hate the X-Men, so don't pay them any mind."

So, Brianna had been expecting the worst as two members of the Brotherhood made their way over to them – one with long, brown hair and one that appeared to be moving at a ridiculously fast pace. It only took him a millisecond to travel the distance in between them.

"Hey, Kitty-Cat, who's your friend?" This guy talked just like he moved – fast, and he didn't even pause in between words.

Before Kitty had the chance to answer Pietro Maximoff's question, the guy with the long hair placed his gloved hand on Kitty's small shoulder, making her wince.

"Like, Lance, get off of me!" she demanded.

He did no such thing, forcing Kitty to phase through him.

"Listen, Kitty, I'm really sorry about the whole parking lot thing. I didn't mean for you to get involved –"

"It's, like, totally not about that, Lance, and you know it!"

"Kitty!" Lance snarled. "You're the one who started it by saying those things to **me**."

"Whatever!" Kitty snapped, taking Brianna's wrist and dragging her off in the opposite direction.

"But my locker's that way!" Brianna protested, trying to jerk free of Kitty's grip.

Kitty released Brianna's wrist, and said, "They'll, like, go easy on you if you're late, since you're new and all. Sorry, I just can't stand those guys." She sighed, deeply.

"Well, who are they, anyways? You never really told me…" Brianna's eyebrows rose, because it didn't look like Kitty hated Lance – they actually seemed like they were _together_. Was it possible for a goodie-goodie like that to have a little something going on with an enemy of the X-Men?

"That one I was fighting with is Lance Alvers. We, like, used to have this thing for each other, but that's totally over now!"

"Go on," Brianna prodded, wanting to hear about their recent break-up. Nosy? Yes, but Brianna had the feeling that Kitty wanted to tell her, anyways.

Shadowcat told her new friend the story of calling him a hood, and then him saying he'd never be good enough for her… and then how sad Kitty had been, and how she called Lance and told him that they were through.

"**Interesting**," Brianna managed to squeeze in, not letting Kitty complete her reenactment of her phone conversation with Lance.

"You, like, wanted to know!" Kitty's eyes narrowed in anger at Brianna's sarcasm.

That was true, Brianna thought, but she hadn't asked for a five minute tirade that included more 'likes' then she wanted to hear her entire life.

"It's only that you didn't tell me about the other one, and the bell's about to ring." She glanced down at her tan Chanel watch. Brianna looked back up at Kitty, attempting an apologetic smile. It killed her doing so – why did _she_ have to act sorry for something stupid like that? But, she didn't want to lose her only friend she had gained so far in New York, so she just dealt with it.

"Oh, Pietro." Kitty's words were spoken in a way that gave Brianna the impression that she wasn't a big fan of his. "I don't really know a lot about him, except he has super speed and is totally cocky."

That's when the bell rang, ordering the kids to file into the building and to head off to their first hour. The sound made Brianna's heart sink, but she remembered to keep her head held high, and to carry herself with confidence, even after Kitty dashed off to her class.

And, of course, Brianna was late. She had a horrible sense of direction, and although someone had pretty much walked her straight to her class, she still managed to arrive about thirty seconds after the five minute passing period was over.

When she creaked open the door to her new English class, all heads simultaneously shifted to her, to see who had come to class late.

Brianna grinned weakly, knowing there had to be at least twenty pairs of eyes on her. "I'm, uh, new here."

"I can see that just fine," the fat woman at the front of the room said. "Take a seat. Are you," she took a look at a piece of paper in her hand. "Brianna Contreras?"

She nodded, mentally stabbing her teacher for talking to her like that – 'I can see that just fine.' Ugh! How dare that ugly, old bat?

Brianna scanned the room for an empty seat, and found only one. It happened to be right next to that guy Pietro, and behind him sat an oblivious Blob, who was eyeing the cupcake on the teacher's desk.

She walked on over to her new seat and sat down. She had been doing a pretty good job at ignoring the pleased look on the white-haired teenager's face, until he quietly leaned in towards her and said, "Well, aren't I the lucky one?"

"Listen – I'm just not into guys with white hair, all right?" With that, she placed her focus back onto Ms. Wilson.

"Oh, you'll come around."

Brianna barely had time to roll her eyes and start her witty comeback before the teacher, voice harsh with rage, roared, "Mr. Maximoff, you are pushing your luck!"

"Yes, ma'am," Pietro said, as if he was ashamed of himself.

She just shook her head, and muttered something about not believing those boys were allowed back into the school after being expelled.

The only thing that flew from her mouth that was completely audible was, "--what made Edward change his mind, anyway?"

"Oh," Pietro spoke up. "You can find my father to be a very persuasive man, and if you keep it up, he'll persuade his way into leaving you jobless."

Of course, Mystique, posing as Magneto, had only threatened the principal of Bayville High into letting the Brotherhood return to his school because she knew that they wouldn't get out of her hair if she didn't do so. Their reason for wanting to come back? Their life was better when they had numerous chances to harass the X-Men.

So, there was no chance of Mystique posing as Pietro and Wanda's father again, this time insisting that Principal Kelly fire Ms. Wilson, but Pietro liked acting like there was.

By the time her first day had come to a close, Brianna talked to a few popular kids, and they even invited her to sit at their table during lunch. Seeing as Kitty didn't have her lunch or anything, Brianna saw nothing wrong with it.

However, Kitty and Scott – another person at the Mansion Brianna could stand – saw differently.

"Listen, Brianna, those girls probably don't even like you," Scott told her on the ride home. "I've seen it a million times. I know, because I've dated one of them before. They just hang out with whoever has the best stuff, and whenever you're not there, they talk crap about you." He frowned.

"Yes, **Daddy,**" Brianna said, referring to how fatherly Scott was acting towards her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own X-Men: Evolution. GO FIGURE!

Oh, and review, people… c'mon.

Chapter Five – 

"No, _you_ listen to _me_, Jean!"

Brianna's hollering could be heard from the recreation room downstairs, where Jamie and Bobby were well into a game of foosball.

"Wait – stop!" Bobby said once the racket hit his ears. Just to make sure Jamie wouldn't hit it into his goal while he hasn't paying attention, Iceman swiped the little ball up.

"What?" Jamie asked, a little mad that Bobby stopped the game – it was an important game, after all. It was the third round, the tiebreaker!

"You know what they're arguing about, don't you?" Bobby asked the twelve-year-old mutant.

"Uh, Brianna still hates Jean for telling Kitty that she was a bad influence on her?"

"No, stupid!" Bobby replied, smacking him on the back of the head as he strolled across the table to stand next to the younger boy. "It's because of _you._ I mean, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but they're totally into you!"

"You think so?" Jamie perked up with happiness, only to slump back down seconds later. "But what about Kitty?"

"Listen! I just don't think that Kitty's going to come around. And, if you don't make your move on one of them soon – I think they'll be over you."

Anyone else could plainly see that Bobby had been lying, with his Jack-o-Lantern type grin and evil eyes to match, except for poor little Jamie, who looked up to him, and thought that Bobby would never try and make him look like a moron. Anyone that agreed to watching Digimon with you had to be a true friend, right?

"B-But, I don't know what to do… or what to say." All of a sudden, Jamie looked horrified, and four copies of himself popped out of his sides.

"What should I do?" they all said in unison.

"Don't worry about it," Bobby said, jabbing his finger against the center one's chest – the one he assumed to be the real Jamie. "I'll teach you."

Again, if it had been anyone else, they would have then expected Bobby to break out in a series of maniacal cackles, but all Jamie could see was someone willing to help him with all of his problems.

As Brianna slammed the door in Jean's face, Kitty passed with Rogue close by.

"Like, you should totally grow your hair out, Rogue, it'd look so – Jean, like, what just happened?"

Jean hugged onto herself, looking a little hurt. "Well, I just asked her if I could borrow her flat iron, and she started yelling at me. Kitty, you didn't happen to tell her what I said, did you?"

She didn't even need to read Kitty's mind, because it was written all over her face that she was guilty of doing so.

"Oh," was all Jean could manage to say.

"Even if she did, Brianna needed ta hear it!" After saying her piece, Rogue stormed off.

Jean followed her, but not before saying to Kitty, "I trusted you."

"Jean – Rogue!" Kitty called after them, but they didn't turn around, so she phased through the wall, and into Brianna's room, where Kitty found her reading some fashion magazine.

"Kitty!" Brianna growled. "I **could** have been getting changed!"

"Good thing you're not," Kitty said, lowering herself onto a chair that had been sitting close to a desk – a desk which slightly resembled the floor, cluttered with make-up, scarves, jewelry, and just about anything else you could imagine.

"So, like, you're having problems with Jean," Kitty stated the obvious.

"And just about everyone else here!" Brianna straightened her back, getting out of the comfortable position she had previously been lounging in, and tossing the magazine onto the floor. "I mean, it's been two months and not one single person other than you and Scott have honestly tried making friends with me. That's why I need to get out of here… get a breath of fresh air. I'm going out to eat with Taryn and everyone else at eight."

"You're going someplace with them _again_?" Kitty asked, trying to hide the venom in her voice, and failing miserably.

Brianna groaned, stomping up from her bed and grabbing a comb from the top of her dresser, and then running it through her locks. It didn't look like she needed to brush her hair – it was as straight as a board, like it usually was, but Kitty had learned by then that when Brianna was aggravated, she took it out on her hair, the bristles stroking against her scalp furiously.

"You know, Kitty," Brianna said, sticking a black bobby pin into her hair as an attempt to keep her side bangs in place. "I _am _allowed to have friends other than you."

She knew why Kitty was upset, but Brianna didn't feel like leveling with her at that very point in time. It was often that her other friends had brought up Kitty, talking about how stupid and ugly she was, but it's not like Brianna ever agreed with them, right? Well, at first she had joined in on the jokes and everything, but once she realized that Kitty was actually kind of cool, she just ignored their comments.

"Like, you totally are… I just wish that you'd pick friends other than them, you know? Besides, don't you think you played a part in everyone's… you _know_… hating you? I mean, there was Amara, and Tabitha, **Jean**, and Rogue, and Kurt—"

Brianna cut off the long, long list of names by saying, "Don't even go there. I mean, it's not my problem that he wouldn't accept my apology, right?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to forgive someone when they call you 'it' and 'Papa Smurf,' isn't it?" Kitty defended Nightcrawler.

"Let's talk about something else," Brianna suggested. "Like… has Logan said anything about me?"

"Nope," Kitty replied, flatly, obviously still a little mad about the argument they just had.

"Listen, Kitty, I'm sorry, okay? But are you sure Logan hasn't said anything about me? I mean, I've made real progress with him… really started to open him up."

Kitty kept down the strong urge to tell her that she was self-centered, instead responding, "Well, he asked if we were doing anything this weekend—"

"You told him 'no,' right? What if he was planning on taking us somewhere—"

"I don't think so. I just don't, like, think Logan is the type of guy who would, like, date someone our age. He's more of the father figure. Why don't you just, like, give up before everything gets all weird?"

"**Give up**?" Brianna repeated, shocked. "They say that the right woman can change a man's mind on anything. But, which color shoes – red or black?" She shoved two heels, one red with a pointed toe, and one black with a round toe, underneath Kitty's nose.

"Uh, red," Kitty chose, getting up from the chair and leaving Brianna's dormitory. "Have a, like, great time with your _friends_!"

Brianna got up to try and talk to her, but decided against it when she realized there was only thirty minutes until she had to be at that new, exotic Indian restaurant.

"Scott!" she screamed minutes later, as she banged on his bedroom door. "I need a ride! C'mon! You don't have anything **better** to do!"

"Oh, yes, he does," came Jean's voice as she, instead of Scott, answered the door.

Before another fight between the two had the chance to start up, Scott nudged Jean out of the doorway.

"Where do you need to go?" he said.

"Does it _matter_?" was her reply. "You still owe me one for covering up for—"

"Jean, I have to go!" Scott's voice was raised far above Brianna's, so her remaining words were drowned out completely.

When they were far enough away, Scott whispered, "What are you thinking? If Jean ever finds out about that time with Lindsay, I'm dead, and you are, too. So, watch it!"

Brianna smirked. There was nothing she enjoyed more than blackmailing people into getting what she wanted.

And, once Brianna had arrived at 'The Royal Taj,' she had a pretty good time, despite the horrible taste of the food. They had even convinced their waiter that they were all twenty-three, and he had brought them all a glass of green-tinted liquid.

They didn't really know what it was, besides that it was alcohol, because Taryn had just ordered 'whatever you got.'

"I know, I know – and then she said that Target had great belts."

That's when the waiter placed the bill on their table, and Taryn immediately picked it up, since she had offered to cover it and all. "What?" she shrieked, causing the waiter to twirl around, to see what was wrong. "Those drinks were fifteen dollars a _piece_? What were they?"

Brianna couldn't even imagine how large that bill was, after counting eleven girls at the table – all but one having that drink, and everyone single one of them had ordered a meal, and meals ran pretty high there. It was going to be pretty expensive for a dinner – even for Brianna.

"Well, you asked for anything, so I just –" the waiter began, in his fake Indian accent.

"Don't worry, you guys, I'll handle this." Brianna raised from her seat, and just stared at the waiter for a moment, earning a few giggles from the girls around the table.

In that moment, Brianna was trying to do as the Professor had told her so many times before… clearing her head of all thoughts other than her target and what she wanted them to see.

Before long, her eyes had fogged up until they had turned completely black, and the waiter had let out a terrified scream, the kind you make when you're about to meet your death, and sprinted off, having just seen a gigantic spider crash in through the ceiling and hiss in his face. It wasn't the coolest of things she could have done to frighten him, but it was the only thing she could think of in time.

"Let's go!" Brianna barked, beginning a race towards the exit.

The other teenaged girls had been close behind, without paying for their food, and the group hadn't stopped running until they had run out of breath, in fear of getting caught.

Brianna had been bottling her excitement – she had **finally **been able to create an illusion herself – when a brunette that had accompanied her and the rest of them pointed her index finger at Brianna and said, "You're a _mutant_! I saw your eyes turn all black! I _knew _you lived that that freak school!"


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution. Do you think I'd be writing these if I did?

REVIEW$# ! I'm going crazy here. What do I have to do to make you idiots review?

Oh, but I would like to think Raven-takes-flight for all of her support. :D

Chapter Six – 

"Kitty, I've got to tell you something," Brianna sang, swinging her friend's bedroom door wide open.

"Oh, like, Brianna…" Kitty yawned, lying in her bed. She appeared to be very tired – her eyelids were droopy and everything, threatening to collapse any second now. "You're home late, huh? The Professor, like, wanted to talk to you about something…"

"First, I wanna talk to you!" Next, she squealed, "You'll never guess what happened to me tonight!"

"Oh my Gosh, like, no way!" Rogue mocked the two, shifting in her bed. "That is, like, totally awesome! Oh my Gosh, Golly, Gee whiz!"

Kitty rolled her eyes at her roommate, with difficulty, before propping herself up on her elbows. "L—What?" She had forced the 'like' from coming up her throat, in fear of Rogue mocking them any further.

"Well, I used my powers… but I guess I'll tell you more about it later. I should let you and the Devil's incarnate over there get some rest."

Rogue snorted, as Brianna made her way out. Upon stepping into the hallway, Professor X sent her a telepathic message, being rather short and temperamental with his words, 'Brianna, I need to see you in my chambers immediately.'

Before she could even think up an answer, he exited her mind. "What's **his **problem?" Why did everyone have to rain on her parade? This was the longest time she had ever spent working towards a goal, and once she achieved it, everyone decided that this was the time to bring her down. Even after her friends had booted her out of their clique, Brianna had managed to maintain her high spirits, but she didn't know if she would be able to take much more of this.

"Yes?" she said, trying to keep calm as she entered the rather large room that was Xavier's office. When she took a glance around, she noticed Wolverine leaning against one of the walls.

Brianna was surprised – surprised enough to jump a little. There she was, getting in trouble, and Logan was there to see it all go down. The object of her affection would probably think of her as such a little kid. What worsened this was the expression Logan wore – it looked as if he was going to be joining in on the disciplinary actions, also. This was going to be just fantastic, she could already tell.

"Take a seat," Charles Xavier demanded, and to then soften the impression he had made, he slowly added, "Please."

Brianna did as she was told, hesitantly. She was trying to avoid any thoughts of trouble she my have caused that evening, fearing the Professor might hear them and call her out on them, but when it proved to be nearly impossible, she gave in to the thoughts.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Xavier asked her, reminding Brianna of the dad on Seventh Heaven, and just about every other fictional parent to grace her television screen. This was odd, because he had never acted like this before… he always seemed to be calm and collected.

"Uh…" She squinted, reading the grandfather clock behind him. "Twelve… uh, thirteen."

"This isn't funny, Brianna. I know that you are relatively new here, but you have stayed long enough to realize that my faculty and I have set up rules and guidelines. One of those happens to be that no child is to be out past 10:30, unless they are given permission otherwise."

"But, Professor, I ran into some trouble!" Brianna tried.

"I know all about that. I just hope that the alcohol affected your judgment, tricking you into believing that it is acceptable to frighten an innocent young civilian for such a foolish reason."

Brianna shuttered – it was going to be impossible to hide anything from this guy. At least, back at home, there was always the option of making up some gigantic lie to cover herself up. Brianna was a great liar, though she never lied unless it was completely necessary in keeping out of trouble. It's not that it mattered much, anyway, because her mother never paid much mind to the time her daughter returned home after nights out with her friends. Hah, and her stepfather-of-the-week sure hadn't cared much, either.

"Goodnight." Charles then left for bed.

Logan hadn't left with the man in the wheel chair. "That's where I come in."

They had finally been left alone in a room together, but Brianna hadn't pictured it like this at all.

"Let's see – breaking curfew, underage drinking, and using your powers to skip out on a bill." Logan stopped for a few moments, cooking up her punishment in his mind.

It killed Brianna, seeing how ecstatic Logan was about disciplining her – as if he was superior or something. Well, he was an adult, but he shouldn't but _punishing _her, he should be taking her places and kissing her, in her opinion, anyways.

She was so busy thinking up things she'd rather be doing with Logan other than this that she almost missed him saying, "Well, you'll be spendin' a good two months cleanin' whatever needs to be cleaned, and doin' whatever it is that needs to be done – kind of like a maid, kid, only no pay. I'll be lookin' over your work, bein' the disciplinarian around here. Oh, and no leaving the Mansion, other than school." Then, he left the office, as well, leaving her all alone in this unfamiliar room.

Brianna knew that that was supposed to be terrible news, but she couldn't help but be happy to hear that this whole thing had earned her some alone time with Wolverine. After all, he did say he would be 'looking over' her work, right? But he had also called her 'kid.' What was he thinking? Brianna thought herself out to be a mature _woman_, not some little runt whose hair was there for him to playfully tousle, as if she was his own child or something. She was going to have to change the way he saw her if she planned on getting anywhere with him.

She let herself out of the office, after poking around a little, and made her way up the stairs and into her room. Throughout the whole trip, which happened to be a lengthy one, she had been thinking about this whole grounded thing – she had a lot to learn, because Brianna hadn't even so much as made contact with dish soap. Maybe Logan could teach her, giving her even more time with him. This thought caused a joyous look to creep upon her face.

The thought was soothing because it made her imagine all of the cute little things that could happen between her and Logan as he taught her how to clean things or whatever it is that he wanted her to do. It had aided her in falling asleep faster than she was usually able to. It had knocked her into one of those deep slumbers – a deep, enjoyable slumber where she dreamt of her and Logan even more. That kind of sleep could only be ruined by one thing.

That one thing was the screeching of the alarm clock. Actually, it wasn't exactly screeching, now that Brianna had set it to play a certain radio station whenever the clock struck six forty-five A.M. A more accurate description of the noise would be the blaring of some recent chart topping, hit single. Even if she happened to like the song that had been pounding into her ears, the sound was always far from lovable.

"School?" she asked herself. The clock was only set to go off at six forty-five on school day mornings. On weekends, it gave her fifteen more minutes of sleep. Brianna _hated_ Mondays.

And, normally hitting the sack at nine, she hadn't got as much sleep as she liked. The majority of her 'getting ready' time had been spent trying to conceal the bags underneath her eyes, and slurping down multiple cups of coffee.

She had completely forgotten about the previous night, even after school started – she was too busy sneaking glances into her compact whenever the teacher looked away, to make sure her make-up hadn't worn off.

That is, until Pietro was kind enough to bring up the subject. "Hey, you're a mutant?"

Baffled, she stuttered, "W-What?" She regained her composure, pronouncing the rest of her words flawlessly. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, stop acting clueless," Pietro ordered. "Besides, you should be _proud_. I am. But I can't believe you're an X-Geek! I never would have guessed, though I should have, because it's no big secret that Kitty's only friends live at the X-Mansion or whatever you guys call it."

Brianna fumed, "It's better than being part of the Brotherhood. I mean, all you guys do is slump around that filthy shack all day. If it wasn't for that lunatic sister of your's, you guys wouldn't stand a chance against us." She said 'us' as if she was actually a member of Professor's team of mutants, when she had just started Danger Room sessions with the New Mutants around two days ago. Oh, well… she was going to be an X-Man someday. Maybe it wasn't going to be soon, but it was going to happen in the future.

"You, especially, wouldn't stand a chance," Brianna added.

That's when Ms. Wilson met Brianna's eye, wearily, before stopping her lesson to ask, though it didn't seem like much of a question, "Do I need to move you two?"

"No, no, no!" Pietro insisted. "I mean, she can't control herself around me, but I'll make her stop, and that's a promise."

"Oh, okay…" Brianna said, twirling a single strand of her hair around her right index finger. She took her hand out of her hair, slapping it back onto her desk, furiously.

"Okay, Brianna!" Pietro said, loudly. "For the last time, I don't wanna go out with you! Don't worry about it, Ms. Wilkin! I've got it under control!"

"It's _Wilson_, Mr. Maximoff, but I don't expect you to know any better, since you've only attended around half of my classes this semester!" their teacher huffed.

"Ms. Wilson, may I switch spots, please?" Brianna requested, her hand wiggling around in the air.

"If it will make you two lovebirds hush up, then yes." She signed to some guy with a skyscraper of a pink Mohawk to switch seats with Brianna.

After she snatched up her purse and took her new seat, Brianna felt better. She wasn't as far away from him as she had wished, but at least she didn't have to deal with seeing him every time she turned to her left.

It was obvious to her that she would never be able to escape him when she felt something lightly hit the back of her head, then drifting to the floor. It was a note shaped like a cat's head. Who would've guessed? Pietro knew origami.

She picked it up, despite the voice in her head that told her it was a better idea to just ignore him.

Brianna had to squint in order to see what had been scribbled on the inside. After about a minute of reading it over and over, she had put the puzzle pieces together and figured out what it said.

'How about I show you what the Brotherhood's really about? Come over on Friday at seven.' After that, he had given the phone number.

Crumpling up the piece of college-ruled notebook paper, she turned herself around and gave him a dirty look.

'Is that a no?' Pietro mouthed, to which Brianna nodded, then turned herself back around.

When class was over, she wasn't the least bit taken aback when Pietro tried talking to her again.

"You wanna know how I know you're a mutant, don't you?" he questioned.

She tried speeding up to lose him, but she was no match for Pietro.

"What – are you a telepath, too?" Brianna snapped. "Stay out of my head, you perverted freak."

"Nah," Pietro said. "It's just that Taryn girl has been telling everyone about it… about your eyes turning black and everything, but she never really said what you could do."

"You really want to know?" she threatened, trying to create an illusion of someone coming up to him with a knife, and then stabbing him in the chest repeatedly. That'd make him stay away.

It wasn't working, so she was relieved to hear him say, "Now, there's no need for that! You can show me on Friday, and you _will _be there." Next, he had pecked her on the lips, making her blood boil.

Before she could even blink, he was off. Who did he think he was – telling her where she would or would not be going? Besides, she wasn't going, anyways… she couldn't even think of anything worse than being cooped up in some dump of a house with those idiots.

If she went, she knew that Pietro would be all over her – probably even worse than he was every day after school, and after school was _bad_. There wouldn't even be adult supervision at the Brotherhood home! She already had her eye on someone else – Wolverine. Brianna was planning on making her move sometime soon, while he was explaining to her how to mop the floors or something like that. This brought her to another reason why she wouldn't be able to go with Pietro that Friday – she was grounded.

Another issue arose when it came to be time for lunch. Who was she going to sit with? She sure wasn't going to sit with _them _after what they had done to her – called her 'mutie trash' and then revealed her secret to the entire student body of Bayville High School.

Pietro had invited her to sit with him and the members of his fan club, which happened to be four or five giggling freshman girls. This was an invitation that she was quick to decline.

There was Sam and Bobby, but she couldn't even imagine how many awkward silences they would share. She barely knew them, and had just learned their names.

Finally, she settled on a girl she knew from her art class. Her name was Mary, and she reminded Brianna of Natalie Portman, now that the actress had her hair styled in a pixie cut. Only… Natalie Portman was prettier.

The rest of the girls and Mary were very into art, and that's what most of their discussion revolved around.

They tried to include her, after noticing how silent Brianna was.

One girl with a Harry Potter-like pair of glasses questioned, "So, Brianna… Mary tells me you're in her art class. What do you like most about art?"

"Well, it's an easy 'A,'" she replied, rather flatly.

When she saw the painful looks on the other girls' faces, Brianna knew that she could never again return to that table. She just didn't fit in. She asked herself who else she could possibly sit with as she took a look around the cafeteria. There had to be at least two hundred kids in the room, and more eating outside, and she couldn't find a single table to sit at? This was the first time in her life that she considered herself pathetic.

She knew what she had to do. From then on, she was forcing herself to sit with Pietro. She didn't even have to talk to him or the other girls, but she would sit with him, to avoid sitting all alone like a loser.

Once the nightmare of a lunch had finished, she didn't think there could be anything to cheer her up – especially after all of her old friends had decided to make fun of her outfit right in her face. That's until she realized that Logan would be waiting back at the Mansion.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution.

REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!

Chapter Seven – 

Her 'alone time' with Logan hadn't been what she had dreamt. Every day, he would teach her something new – something she didn't want to learn. She had hoped that he would at least _start _to catch the hint and see her the way she saw him, but, nope.

He would meet her at the door as soon as she got home from school, as if to make sure she didn't have time to call a friend or watch television or do anything fun in the slightest bit. Then, Logan would tell her what she needed to do, whether it be washing dishes, cleaning the jet, or mopping the floor – pretty much anything that had come up that was in need of cleaning. Next, she would ask him to demonstrate, seeing as she had never done any of this stuff before. After he did so, he left… and that was it.

It was a huge disappointment, and every day she told herself to tell him how she felt, but every day she couldn't bring herself to do it. She had never felt this nervous – especially about a guy. Was it her fear of rejection? After all, she had experienced rejection frequently now that she had moved to Bayville.

Whatever it was, it made it hard for Brianna to do what she wanted to do most, and that was get her hands on him.

It was her third day of 'probation,' as he had called it, and no sparks had flown.

Brianna was thinking of the advice Kitty had given her – yes, she had sunk low enough to ask for help with this – as she watched him clean a window. He was giving her step-by-step instructions on completely this simple task.

"Just… go for it," Kitty had told her one afternoon, over lunch. "I mean, don't even, like, give yourself time to think about it, because if you do, you'll totally psyche yourself out. Who, like, cares what they're gonna say? Either they like you or not, and if not, what's, like, the worst they can do? It's not like Logan's immature or anything."

"Thanks," Brianna had said, looking away. She tended to do that, whenever she had to say 'thank you,' because she didn't feel comfortable seeing the other person's reaction that what was in her opinion, 'her corniness.' "I know you aren't into the whole me and Logan thing, but I really… appreciate your help and stuff." Brianna couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence with anything other than 'and stuff,' because she felt that would be going into extreme corny mode.

Yeah, right, Brianna told herself. What Kitty had said didn't help her at all. The only thing it did was make her feel stupid for not being able to 'just… go for it.' And to think – Brianna actually thanked her for that crap advice!

Logan was starting to leave the kitchen, biting into an apple he grabbed from the fridge.

That was it – it was the perfect time to take the plunge – they had just shared some friendly conversation, well, as friendly as conversation got with that beast of a guy, and Danger Room sessions had been cancelled for that day, so Logan had nothing better to do, right?

"Oh, Logan," Brianna said, stepping towards him. She had been trembling in doubt of herself, but she had managed to steady herself long enough to delicately run her fingers up and down his arm, looking down at her hands as she did so. Wow… this was actually happening.

Or was it?

It had taken a while for all of it to sink in, but when it did, Logan pushed her hand away. He was bewildered – he knew the Professor had warned him about her feelings, and how strong they were, but Logan had never expected all of _this._ He wasn't sure whether to respond to it in his usual gruff manner, or take the wise, old teacher approach – that is what he was expected to be to her, right? A teacher – certainly not a boyfriend or anything of the sort.

"Listen, kid." He tried acting soft, but it wasn't really working for him. He was quite the animalistic person by nature, and now he was supposed to be this soft-spoken little wimp? "I'm sure you're very mature – Hell, you were probably reading Cosmo by the age of five, but this just isn't right."

"But—" Brianna piped, lifting her hand to his arm again, only to be smacked away another time.

This girl was really pushing it, making the next words come out in a voice even harsher than usual, "That stuff just isn't going to fly, all right? I'm not under the age of eighteen, which means you won't be getting with _me_ anytime soon."

By then, he had been spitting his words out from behind clenched teeth, which made it all even more upsetting to the high school sophomore. What had made him so angry? Sure, a lot of people wouldn't consider what she was doing _right_, but it was nothing to get completely furious over. Maybe those were just his ways…

He then walked off after a brief stare-down, leaving the room empty with the exception of her, the Windex that waited for her, and those filthy, filthy windows.

"What a failure," Brianna breathed. Her voice was something pitiable – so pitiable that her ears stung when she heard herself. Well, at least she wasn't crying. She wouldn't let herself cry, because that was too large of a blow to her pride.

Why would she cry, in the first place? Logan wasn't special… She surely didn't _love _him; she just had a thing for him. Some stupid little thing… she'd had them before. Even if he had liked her back – they wouldn't go anywhere. She wasn't looking to go anywhere. She was young, and all she needed was fun.

When she finished rubbing down all the windows, Brianna headed straight for her room. That was the only place _to _go, seeing as the recreation room was banned to anyone that was grounded, and that's where the rest of the teenagers were right then.

On the bright side, this was a golden opportunity to blast some music, since there was no one occupying the rooms around her. There for, no one could complain.

Brianna had been playing "Lovefool" by The Cardigans – a song her mother had always enjoyed, and although it didn't really express her feelings at that moment, she sang as if it did, with passion. It had calmed her down a bit, but not enough for what was coming next.

There was a soft knocking on her door, which had been impossible for her to hear with her music turned up so loud. Brianna hadn't realized that there was someone just outside the door until the knocking got louder and louder with impatience.

"I'm coming!" she shouted, muting the radio.

There stood Jamie. He was dressed up in a firmly pressed suit and he had a bouquet of brightly colored tulips in his hand. Jamie also wore a self-conscious smile.

To most, this would be something that would cheer you up, but with the timing and all, it only made her angrier.

Here this little boy stood – he'd probably heard all about Logan! Logan had blabbed to the entire Mansion! How perfect! And now this preteen of a thing thought he actually had a shot? She wouldn't be surprised if he was just like, 'Hey, Logan didn't want her – I bet no one wants her! That must mean I can have her!'

"You… little… creep!" Then, Brianna slammed the door on him, before he even had the chance to give her the flowers.

Sure enough, he had been brought to tears – Bobby told him that Brianna had liked him!

Bobby had been waiting just down the hall, snickering. Jamie had tried running past him, but when he saw the younger boy had been crying, Bobby grabbed onto him, and asked, "Whoa, little man, what happened?"

"I… Well, I-I-I…" Jamie sniffled.

"Man, I told you that you should've chose Jean Grey!"

This didn't help. Jamie got away, and started jogging to his room. His tears floated off of his face as he did so, hitting the walls and floor.

One even touched Nightcrawler's fuzzy cheek. First, he inspected the ceiling to make sure there wasn't a leak or anything. "Hmm…" He shrugged his shoulders and saw a red-faced, sobbing Jamie head into his bedroom.

He thought about going in and talking to him himself, but he wasn't much of a person that was good at cheering people up, especially little kids. Who knew what made twelve-year-olds feel better, anyways?

Kurt knew who he had to get, and it was Jean Grey, so he teleported into the library. That's where he spotted Jean last. She had been making out with Scott – that's where they always went to make out, because it wasn't like anyone was going to walk in on them in _there_.

Scott coughed at the smoke Kurt had brought into the room, lifting himself up from the couch and combing his unruly hair with his fingers. Jean did the same.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Kurt?" Scott fumed. "Just walk like a normal person!"

"Veah, yeah," Kurt said. Scott's words were coming in one ear and out the other. "Jean, Jamie's crying about somezing – maybe you could talk to him?"

"Oh, uh, maybe you should talk to him, Scott." She looked over to her boyfriend. "He'll probably to someone of his gender. You know how it is."

Scott angrily muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like, 'It was just getting good.' But, he still got up and headed towards Jamie's room.

He found Jamie sprawled out on his bed. Jamie was lying on his stomach, and heavily breathing into his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pillow.

"Jamie?" Scott said, lowering onto the foot of the twin-sized bed. "Are you all right?"

As an answer, Jamie turned around so Scott could see his face. It was wet, and all scrunched up when it got when you cried – snot was even coming out of his nose, not a very pretty sight.

Scott got up and searched Jamie's room for a box of tissues. When Scott found one on his desk, he brought the box to Jamie's bed, and handing him one. "So, what happened?"

Jamie let out a deep sigh before saying a bit shakily, "Well, B-Bobby told me that Jean Grey and B-Brianna liked me, s-so he t-told me what I should d-do to win Brianna o-o-over. W-We bought a suit, flowers, and e-even some mint spray. B-But, she didn't like me at all! She shut the d-door right in my face… I d-didn't even g-give her the flowers yet!" He pointed to the carpet, where the bouquet sat, sadly.

He should've known it was Bobby. That kid was always up to something. "You know, she was probably just surprised. Who needs her, anyways? She's not _that _pretty."

When Jamie didn't look any better, Scott knew what he had to do. There goes the thirty-five bucks he found on the ground just the other day. If he was going to treat one person to ice cream, everyone expected a cone. "How does ice cream sound?"

The next day, Danger Room sessions were back on. The New Mutants had been scheduled after the X-Men, giving Briana the time to finish mowing the lawn and change into her uniform.

It was exactly like the rest of the New Mutants uniforms – black with a yellow belt, yellow gloves, and yellow shoes. There was a black 'X' on either shoulders and on the belt buckle, with red behind it. It was skin-tight, and Briana wasn't fat or anything near it, but it hugged onto all the areas that she was worried about.

When Briana had arrived in the Danger Room, Jamie looked sad to see her, and refused to look in her direction.

Before they got started, Sam had asked, "Did you really do all that stuff to Jamie?"

She blinked, before shoving him away.

"All right," Logan said the doors mechanically opening as her entered the mutant's gym. Cyclops walked next to him. "Today we'll be facin' a laser. It shoots at random places, and your tryin' to get from point A to point B without getting touched. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Brianna hissed, everyone looking at her. No one ever asked questions, because Logan wasn't the patient type. "What am I suppose to do? My power is useless in this case. What am I suppose to do – spook it into shooting elsewhere? Not possible! _Great_ lesson you've planned out. You know, I don't even know why you make me train! I'll never be able to use my power in combat." She then stormed out, leaving everyone else clueless as to what that was all about.

Everyone except for Wolverine, who figured this had to be about the day before. She was probably still angry with him, therefore lashing out at anything he tried to do – like planning a Danger Room session, for example. Stupid kids.

The rest of the mutants lined up at the starting point and Scott counted down, "Three… two… one! Go!"

Soon after he freak out, Professor Charles Xavier joined Brianna in her room.

"Brianna, I hear that you have been underestimating your mutation," he said. "This is funny because I was going to ask you if you would be interested in joining the X-Men, once you've come to control your gift a bit more. I know it isn't great offense, but it will make for extraordinary defense. Although I am not proud of your doing this, but that waiter hasn't been the same since that whole incident. Your illusions are very powerful indeed."

"Hah, you know, Professor, you don't have to do all this just to make me feel better."

"That's not what I'm trying to do," he countered. "I know very well that you are capable of dealing with your own personal issues. My offer still stands."

Once he left, Brianna let herself think about it. Wow, it took the other mutants a while to graduate onto the X-Men, and she had the opportunity only after a month. Well, it kind of made sense – her power was a bit different from the rest, while each of the other New Mutants had a power similar to one of the X-Man's. Sure, it would take a few more lessons and everything, but once that was over… she'd get to go on all those exciting missions Kitty was constantly talking her ear off about.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: Evolution. There – are you happy now?

Chapter Eight –

Brianna didn't know if she could take this place much longer, what with the whole tension between her and Logan, and everyone thinking that she was a heartless monster for lashing out at Jamie.

It didn't help that everyone else was getting all fixed up for their Friday night plans. They all looked so nice – well, most of them, anyways – in their party clothes and nighttime make-up. And then there was her, looking very misplaced, in her cleaning outfit, which was a ridiculously oversized hoodie and the straight-legged jeans she had worn that day. Her hair was up in a long, long ponytail, so it wouldn't get in her face, and the bottom of her socks were very dirty from walking around in messes for about an hour.

"How do I look?" Kitty asked, twirling around in her brand new baby doll dress. "Be, like, totally honest!"

"Good," Brianna answered. This wasn't really fair, because Kitty looked more than 'good.' This was the best Brianna had ever seen her; with her hair all down in loose spirals and make-up that enhanced her facial features. The truth was that Brianna was jealous.

"Where are you going, anyway?" Brianna questioned.

"Oh, out to eat with… someone." Kitty giggled, trying to be secretive, but she couldn't keep anything from Brianna – her face gave it away instantly.

"Lance!" she shouted, grinning. "I knew you liked him again, didn't I? You _do_!"

"It doesn't mean, like, anything at all," Kitty said. "He's just taking me some place to eat. It's not like we're, like, getting back together or anything."

"Oh, just give it time." Brianna smirked. "Before you know it, he'll be trying to unzip your pants in the back of his car."

Kitty rolled her eyes. "Oh, please! You, like, know what, though? Pietro wanted to make it a, like, double date, but then I told him you were grounded, so he backed off. I guess some good things, like, come out of getting in trouble, huh?"

"I guess. Doesn't that creep get enough of me at school? I have to sit with him every day at lunch! All he does is flirt with all those stupid freshies."

"Like, watch it!" Kitty said. "_I'm_ a freshie, and there's, like, nothing wrong with me, right? And, like, are you sure that you're not just, like, _jealous_?"

Brianna laughed. "Are you kidding me? Why would I be jealous of them? They didn't get asked to his house tonight at seven! Which reminds me… can I borrow some of your clothes? None of mine really fit the occasion."

"You're actually going to _go_?" Kitty's jaw was dropped in disbelief. "You're grounded, and, like, do you even know what he's gonna, like, try and do to you?"

"Like I'd let him pull that." Brianna began filing her nails, nonchalantly, stopping every few seconds to examine them. "Can I borrow some of your clothes or not?" She was rather lucky, having a best friend that was the same size as her.

"I guess." Kitty sighed, turning away from her reflection. "The more I look at myself, the more I hate it. Are you sure it looks okay?"

"Yes."

"Okay, well, like, I have a question… you can't find, like, one outfit to wear? You have, like, five hundred shirts, I swear!"

"Eh." Brianna cocked her head to inspect her nails from a new angle. "Well, I hope you have a wild night tonight."

"'Wild?'" Kitty repeated. "I _hope _it doesn't get, like, wild, but knowing Lance… it probably will."

"All right, all right, I think he's waiting," Brianna said, peeking out the window to see Lance's green Jeep.

"Bye!" Kitty said, jogging out of the room.

Brianna kept her eyes on the Jeep, and watched as Kitty greeted him with a kiss. She rolled her eyes at the sight… whatever happened to them 'not being back together?'

After the whole Wolverine incident, Brianna figured she deserved a boy in her life. The school year was coming to an end, and what was summer without romance?

That's why she started digging through Kitty's dresser drawers and closet. She didn't really like Kitty's taste in clothing, but there was one item of her friend's that could be of great use.

Finally, she found it. It was this long, knit tank top with spaghetti straps. The color was a bright yellow, and that was the reason she wanted to borrow it in the first place. She had read in the latest issue of 'Elle Girl' that yellow looked really good on a tan.

Kitty usually wore the top with something over it, but Brianna decided not to. There was nothing wrong with her skin, so why should she hide it?

She was gazing into her mirror, wondering where she could buy a shirt like this one. The tag read that it was from American Eagle, but Brianna wasn't going to be caught dead wearing something from an inexpensive store like that. It would be okay for her to wear it that night, but she wouldn't dare wear it to school.

That's when it hit her. She was dressing up for _Pietro_. Maybe he wasn't that bad… but it was still mind-blowing, because she always thought of him as such an annoying person. She was probably just on the rebound, but she tried telling herself that she had always had a soft spot for him – she'd just ignored it until now.

After she finished touching up her make-up, and she threw on a pair of matching yellow flats, Brianna looked around for that crumpled up note Pietro had given her. It had their number on it.

When she found it, she grabbed her cell phone and dialed.

She couldn't believe she was doing this, but she didn't have enough time to talk herself out of it, because seconds after it began ringing, someone picked up.

"The Brotherhood!" Blob said on the other end.

"Is… uh, Pietro there?"

"Sure," he replied, and yelled right into the phone, making Brianna wince a little. "YOU WERE RIGHT, PIETRO – SHE DID CALL! PIETRO – THE PHONE!"

"Shut up, _Blob_!" she heard Pietro hiss.

There was a noise as Blob handed off the phone.

"Hello," Pietro said.

"Hi…" Brianna said unenthusiastically. She was really beginning to wish she hadn't made this phone call.

There was silence, but then Pietro broke it. "So, what do you want? I'm very busy tonight, you know. I've got dates that are waiting for me, so let's get down to business."

"Oh, if you have plans, then…"

He hadn't let her finish. "Wait, no! Let's say I cancelled those plans – then what?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could hang out or something… at your house, or wherever. I don't really care."

"I thought you were _grounded_," Pietro said, bitterly.

"They don't have to know, but, first, I need a ride. I can't just sneak out of here with no car, you know."

"We don't live that far away. Why don't you just walk?"

Brianna groaned.

"Fine, fine. I'll be over there in a sec."

Then, he hung up, so Brianna was left with time to think about how she was going to make her escape. There was always that window – that great, big window that took up a great portion of her wall space.

This was going to have to do, because she didn't have a chance to explore other possibilities. She could see that Pietro was already at the gates, pounding onto them like a patient at an insane asylum. What an idiot! He was going to get them caught.

Thankfully, he stopped the very second she slid open the window, as if he had been reading her thoughts or something like that.

Soon, she realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere with her bag all in the way, so she dropped it onto the ground. It landed rather softly, so she didn't think anyone would have heard it.

Brianna was pretty high up, so she took a second to enjoy the view before looking for a way to get down. She looked up at the sky – she wondered how far away those stars had to be.

She was fortunate, because there happened to be a fire escape latter a few rooms over. Cautiously, Brianna climbed down, but she soon learned that she would have to jump a ways down, because the latter didn't quite touch the ground.

She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and took a jump into the air, landing on her feet, roughly. They started pounding with pain, but that didn't stop her from scrambling to pick up her purse and then running towards the gate.

It opened as she ran up. It always let people leave without having to press any numbers or place their hand or anything, but to get in was a very different story. The Mansion was pretty high security.

"A bicycle?" Brianna spat in disgust as she saw what piece of garbage Pietro had come to pick her up in.

"It's got pegs," Pietro exclaimed, motioning to the back of the bike so she would get on. "Toad let me borrow it since Lance has his Jeep tonight. Now, get on."

"I'll just walk," she said, starting up the street. The gates had just closed, and if they didn't hurry up, someone might see them.

"Why don't you just get on?" Pietro whined. "This is going to take forever if you walk!"

"No, Pietro!" Brianna snapped. "I can't be seen on that _thing _– especially not on some stupid little pegs! What are we – seven? _You_ can ride on it, but I'm walking, and that's it."

Pietro's eyes narrowed. He hated not getting what he wanted, just as Brianna hated not getting what she wanted. They were going to have to butt heads, because Pietro wasn't going to stand for this. He had other places to go – other chicks to be with, and he was forced to take this? "Get on the pegs or I'm leaving!"

When she realized he was being completely serious, she reluctantly hopped on. "_Fine_!"

He grinned at his accomplishment as he told her, "Hey, I need to go get my wallet and cancel those plans, so we'll have to go back to the house for a second."

"Okay…"

Next, they whizzed off. Pietro's legs were pumping the pedals at an incredible speed, and they were going at least fifty miles an hour. On a bike… that was just plain crazy. She squeezed onto his back for dear life.

They had come to an abrupt halt. Brianna hadn't been able to see the scenery that passed them, because they were going so fast, but they were now parked in front of the Brotherhood dump.

"You didn't have to do that!" she hissed as they walked on up to the door. "You're such a jerk, sometimes, you know that? I could've been killed!"

"Well, _at least_ you weren't seen on the pegs, right?" Pietro then burst open the door.

Toad was waiting for them, all crouched up on the staircase. "Pietro, is my bike okay or did —" He stopped when he saw the girl Pietro had brought to the house. He had seen her around school, and always wanted to talk to her, but never had the nerve. Now, she was on his turf, so he would be able to. "Hey, baby cakes!" He flinged himself off of the stairs and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug as she entered their home.

Before Brianna could wail out in pure terror, Pietro grabbed Toad off of his date.

"Listen, Toad!" He poked Toad with much force as he said this. "You stay away from here, you hear me? Now, I've got to go upstairs and make a few calls, so just stay in the kitchen. We got more Hello Kitty fruit snacks, you know."

"Oh, man!" Toad raced for the kitchen, Pietro walked up the stairs, and Brianna looked around for a place to sit. She discovered a couch, and after making sure there was nothing wrong with it, she sat. Brianna had never been to such a terrible place in her life! The paint was peeling, there were numerous cracks in the walls, and it smelled of cheese that had been left out in the sun for too long. Plus, she found a slimy, green splat on one of the walls, which was dripping down, about ready to touch the carpet.

She had been studying it when she heard Toad trying to sound seductive. "Baby girl, where have you been all my life? And, by the way, you can call me _Todd._"

Brianna looked up. He had a package of Hello Kitty fruit snacks in one hand, and a single red rose in the other. But, he was quick to shove the stem of the rose in between his funky teeth; impersonating some type of Latin hunk he had seen on television.

This couldn't be happening. She turned away from the hideous guy, trying to listen for Pietro's voice. Wasn't he done yet? How many dates did he have to cancel?

The walls were so paper thin that she could hear him with ease. "Something just came up," he was saying into the phone. "No, Alicia – of course I don't think you're ugly. Uh-huh, uh-huh – oh, shut up! I don't want to hear another one of your sob stories! I need to go!"

That's when she felt someone jump onto her back, and start licking her ear. Ew! She knew whose tongue that had to be… and he had probably caught plenty of insects with it that very day.

"That's enough!" she shouted, forcing Toad off of her and then stomping up the stairs.

She found Pietro in his room, with his door wide open. He was lying on his bed, talking on that phone of his.

When he saw the look on her face, he said so quickly that it was extremely hard to understand, "Got to go. Bye."

"We're leaving," Brianna informed him, snatching his wrist and leading him out of the house.

"Where do you want to go?" Pietro asked, getting back on the bike.

"The movies," she mumbled. "But there's no way I'm riding on that thing again."

The reason Brianna had chose the movies was because there, she didn't have to talk to him. She didn't really feel like talking to Pietro at all, because he was making her extremely mad. Sure – she could just go home, but she wasn't really ready to deal with the Professor just yet. So, the movies sounded just perfect.

"Well, what do you suggest we take then, hmm?" he asked her, sourly.

"You told me you know how to hotwire cars," Brianna recalled.

Then they started a journey down the street, looking for a car. Pietro had picked quite a few, but Brianna had refused to ride in every single one of them. She couldn't be seen riding around in just anything, now, could she? They had been bickering up until the moment Brianna laid her eyes on a sleek, new sports car.

"That's it!" she squealed. Adrenaline was pumping through her system rapidly – she couldn't believe this was actually happening. She was actually going to break into a car – and a real nice one, at that.

She served as a look out as Pietro walked into the Target parking lot and opened the driver's door. It had been unlocked. People were so careless these days.

"Come over here!" Pietro whispered. "I need your help!"

Brianna took another look around, to make sure no one else had been watching, and made her way over to the car.

"I just need you to tie these two together, and I'll turn over the engine."

Before either of them knew it, the car had begun vibrating, starting up.

Brianna laughed uncontrollably as she scooted over to the passenger's seat. She couldn't remember a single time before that her heart had been beating that fast.

They were speeding off for Harkins Movie Theater, with the windows down so the wind violently made a mess of their hair. Brianna still hadn't finished her giggling – she was so excited, and she felt so free.

Pietro had parked rather sloppily, but it was good enough for him, so they got out, slamming the doors behind themselves. It wasn't like it was their car, anyways.

With all of the excitement that came with breaking the law, Brianna had forgot all about how livid she had been at Pietro. She even let him hold onto her hand, lacing his fingers with her's. When she looked down at their hands, she realized how dark she was compared to Pietro. The whiteness of his skin made her tan appear to be even deeper – she could get used to hanging around Pietro.

"What do you want to see?" he asked her as they moved up in the line to get their tickets.

"I don't care," she replied, pushing her bangs behind her ear with her free hand.

"Well, I wanna see The Omen," Pietro said. He didn't really want to watch that movie – honestly, he'd rather see Nacho Libre, but he knew how girls got at scary movies. They got all scared and held onto him for 'protection.'

"Okay, but isn't it rated R?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah – but you can make it look like we're old enough to get in, can't you? Just make the person think we're in our forties or something."

"And what if they ask for ID?" Brianna didn't think this was such a bright idea.

"Well." Pietro paused. "You can take care of that, too. I mean, you know what a driver's license looks like, don't you?"

"Yeah, but why can't we just buy tickets to a different movie and then sneak into The Omen from there? It's easier."

"Oh, c'mon!" Pietro pleaded. "It'll be more fun _this _way. Plus, I need to see exactly what you can do. I'm interested."

"All right, all right." Brianna rolled her eyes. "Speaking of which, I didn't think you knew my power."

"Kitty told Lance, and Lance told me. Illusions – that's pretty cool."

"Shh!" Brianna said, putting a finger to his lips. She didn't want the whole world to know.

"I can help whoever's next!" called a girl at the window, who was clad in a very masculine uniform that was identical to the rest of the Harkins employees'.

"That's us." Brianna nudged him to move forward, but then grabbed his arm so he would stop. "Wait – my eyes."

She grabbed a pair of huge sunglasses from her purse. People probably wouldn't react the same if they caught a glimpse of her eyes turning pitch black.

"I _said _that I can help whoever's next!" she roared again, obnoxiously.

They moved on up to the window, and Pietro said, glancing over to Brianna, "Two for The Omen."

"May I see your driver's license, please?" she asked, cheerfully. This girl had to have about twenty personalities in her – one second she was impatient with them, and the next she looked almost happy to see them.

Brianna felt her eyes change underneath the sunglasses – it was a tingly sensation, as if she had just got some shampoo in her eye. It wasn't strong enough to make her cry – but it did distract her a little bit.

Pietro fumbled with his wallet, stalling for time, but then whipped out a Blockbuster Membership card,

Brianna had ignored the stinging of her eyes long enough so that this Blockbuster card seemed to be a driver's license that clearly stated that Pietro was born in nineteen eighty-two, making him twenty-four years of age.

"Okay," the employee said, handing them their tickets.

Brianna was glad when Pietro stuffed the card back into his wallet, because the pain in her eyes could finally stop.

"What'd you make me look like?" Pietro asked her as she took off the sunglasses. "Did I have a beard?"

"No," she retorted. "We can pass for twenty, can't we? Making you appear to be older would just be a waste."

"Ah," Pietro said, disappointed.

Turns out, Brianna wasn't like the other girls Pietro had taken to the movies previously, and didn't get all worked up at all the scary scenes.

When Pietro asked her why she wasn't pulling her hair out in fright, she answered in a rather simple manner, "I'm used to it. I've made scarier illusions before – trust me."

After the movie finished, Pietro was beating himself up about not trying to kiss her. It was so perfect – why didn't he go for it?

"Pietro?" Briana said as they drove off for something quick to eat. She had noticed that he looked somewhat strained. He hadn't even bothered to pass the speed limit.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," he lied. " I was thinking about something, though. Why'd you decide to sit with me at lunch? You could've sat anywhere else."

"Oh, well…" Brianna started.

"You've _always_ liked me!" he accused.

She was saved by the flashing of red and blue lights that passed them by, because Pietro had panicked.

"We have to get out of the car – right now!" Pietro blubbered. "This is a stolen vehicle – I wouldn't be surprised if they were coming after us!"

"Right now? Oh, but I though you were the fearless _Quicksilver_!"

"Just get out!" He swiveled into a dirt lot and jumped out of the car as if it was infested with a swarm of wasps.

"Now how do we get home?" Brianna asked. Pietro should've planned this out if he was going to be a baby about everything.

"There's a pay phone over there," he replied, referring to the one just outside of the nearby Burger King.

Brianna then realized that this was a really, really bad part of town. Everything that surrounded them was either beat up of it had been covered in graffiti, so she kept close by Pietro.

"Who are we going to call?" she whispered, as she gave him a quarter.

"Why don't you call Scott?" Pietro suggested.

"Are you kidding me – he'll have my head, and probably tell the Professor, too. Call Lance!"

"But he's on a date – what if he has his phone turned off?"

"Well, let's hope it isn't!" she hissed, popping the quarter in the slot.

When Pietro began dialing, she realized that she had left her cell phone in the car. "Oh, wait, Pietro… my cell phone's in the car! We can call them on that."

The only problem was that when they turned around to walk back to the car they had abandoned, it was getting vandalized by a group of thugs. One was smashing the windshield with a large metal bat, sending glass in all directions, and the others were busy tagging it with gang signs and logos.

Pietro yelped, and turned back to the pay phone. "I need another quarter!"

"Hurry up!" Brianna said as she handed him an additional twenty-five cents.

Brianna listened to Pietro as he gave Lance directions to the Burger King. She had been clutching onto his arm so hard that he had to tell her to stop because she was cutting off his circulation.

When Pietro hung up, they exchanged worried glances and then darted off into the Burger King without even saying a word.

The Burger King was also filled with gangsters, so they decided to take cover in the restrooms.

"Let's go in the Mens'," Pietro said, not wanting to look like a pansy for going into the ladies' room.

"Do you really want to do that?" she asked as a couple of guys five times his sized filed out of the mens' restroom.

"All right – whatever." He zipped off into the Girls' room, leaving her all alone for a second.

"Don't you ever do that again!" she demanded. "Do you know how scary that was for me?"

She then found him in a stall, so she joined him, latching the door.

"You know how much trouble we'll be in if they find out we're the ones who stole the car?" he said. "They'll think we did all of that stuff to it!"

"Settle down, and take a few deep breaths," Brianna advised.

When he finished doing so, he said, "What are we doing in here? We're mutants! We can take them. They don't stand a chance against us. I'm gonna go fight them, and you should, too!"

"We can't just go around using our powers for everything, you know! I'm staying in here."

"So, whaddya want to do?" Pietro was easily bored, and he searched the stall for something that might amuse them.

She stood on her toes and kissed him. Of course, he kissed back, his hands running up her shirt.

Around fifteen minutes later, Lance and Kitty arrived at the fast food place.

"Where are they?" Lance said, irritated. "He _said_ they'd be waiting in here."

"Ew, I hate these places," Kitty complained. "Can you believe all the poor animals that, like, died to run this place?"

Lance was getting tired of Kitty's vegetarianism. She had even lectured him out of ordering a steak that night.

"Lance, like, I've got to go to the bathroom," she said. "I'll be, like, right back."

When she pranced into the bathroom, the first thing she noticed was the odor, but the second thing she noticed was noises coming from one of the stalls.

"Is, like, anyone there?" she asked, and when no one replied, she decided to investigate.

She noticed a familiar pair of yellow flats at the bottom of the stall that had all the noises coming from it. Those were Brianna's shoes! She remembered that pair because she thought they were the most hideous things she'd ever seen. Those had to be Brianna's! No one else in the world would be stupid enough to buy those things. And there was a pair of feet next to her's. Those were Pietro's shoes – Pietro was _raping _Brianna!

"Brianna, are you okay?" Kitty said. "Don't worry!"

Kitty phased through the bright green door, only to find that Brianna was pinned against the stall with her head thrown back, and Pietro was at her neck. When she took another look, stunned, she could see that Brianna had a rather large hickey, stretching from her chin to the middle of her neck. Brianna – a hickey? Kitty remembered Brianna saying how 'tasteless' hickeys were, and how she'd never let a guy give her one. This was all just too weird.

"OH, MY GOSH!" Kitty could be heard shrieking.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** Just for all you whack jobs out there that think I own X-Men: Evolution, I don't. :D

And thank you all for the reviews. You don't know how excited it makes me to see people interested in my stories.

**Chapter Nine –**

"What were you doing in the restroom – hiding like a little girl when your car gets smashed to pieces?" Lance asked, smirking slightly at the humor of the entire situation.

"I was only avoiding a fight, Lance," Pietro defended himself as they headed out of the Burger King. "It's not like I was _scared_ or anything. What if she got hurt, huh? Ever think about _that_? No, you didn't. You just jump to conclusions!" Sure, Pietro had been a little scared about this place for a while there, but he wasn't about to tell Lance that.

"Oh, of course," Lance said, opening the door to his junker of a green Jeep.

The others joined him, but when Lance jammed the key into the ignition, Brianna realized that she had forgotten all about her cell phone, once again. That cell phone was her child, and it held important information. If she lost that phone, she would lose the numbers of all the people she wanted to keep in touch with, and she would also lose all of those pictures she had taken of herself, and that would just be horrifying.

"Wait!" she said, opening the door and dangling her legs outside of the car, ready to hop out. "My cell phone's still in that thing. Come with me to get it!"

"No!" Pietro replied, reaching to move her legs over, and from there, shut the door.

"_Pietro!" _Lance growled, actually bearing his teeth. Pietro was getting on his nerves beyond belief. "What's wrong with you tonight? You've never acted like this before, but, oh, I get it. You're trying to play Mr. Sensitive or whatever so Brianna will bat her eyelashes. _Get over it_, and stop wussing around!"

"Like Lance said, we need to stop wussing around and _get my cell phone_. You even said so before, Pietro, we're mutants – we can take anything they throw at us, and come back with something twelve times worse. Besides, if I don't get my cell phone, they can implicate me for stealing the car, and I'm bringing you right down with me."

"Yeah, besides, you don't have to hide anymore – the big, _bad_ meanies are gone now!" Lance laughed at himself.

"Okay!" Pietro snapped, and they all got out. He made sure to close the door as hard as he possibly could, causing another argument between him and Lance to surface.

"If you chipped the paint, pretty boy, I'm going to slam your head against the concrete so many times that you—"

"Wait, Brianna!" Pietro grabbed onto her, swatting away Lance's words like a pesky bug. "I'll get it. No use wasting time." He zipped into the car at his usual exceptional speed, all in a blur, but after a while of looking through the car for the thin silver device, he slowed down, in defeat.

"Where is it?" Pietro asked no one in particular, impatiently. When he looked up to tell the others that it was nowhere to be found, he noticed the ground tremble beneath him.

He was ready to rip Lance's head off for fooling around, probably trying to impress Kitty, until he saw that the people that had been trashing the vehicle previously had come back for more.

There had to be at least five of them – all wearing the same grim expression, that clearly stated that these dumb kids in front of them were going to die for even thinking about coming near the vehicle that they had claimed as their's, with all of the tags and what not. Pietro knew this was going to happen – nobody ever bothered listening to what he had to say. Shouldn't they know by now that Pietro Maximoff was always right?

"Hey, listen!" Kitty said as they approached. "We're, like, not looking for a fight, okay?"

Pietro shook his head at Kitty's X-Men-esque ways. What did Lance see in her? Didn't that girl know that acting like a good guy wouldn't get her anywhere in this situation? Those guys were going to try and beat them all into bloody pulps no matter what she had to say. The group only laughed at her stupidity.

"Oh, that changes everything," croaked a particularly dirty-looking man in his early twenties, with sarcasm seeping through every single syllable. He then pulled something out of his tattered jean jacket. It shined in the moonlight, and they could plainly see that what he was holding was a knife.

Brianna felt like running for her dear life, but when she saw the others standing their ground, she forced herself to stand tall, as well. Sure, _they _had no problem with this – they had control, and although Brianna was getting better with all of this, she wasn't sure if she could take this on just yet. Didn't Lance tell Pietro that they were gone? Because of that _idiotic _mistake the longhaired boy had made, she was going to get knifed by these druggies. It was true that she was the one that wanted to get her cell phone in the first place, but she surely wouldn't have felt the same if Lance had actually bothered checking things out before running that mouth of his.

How dangerous this situation was didn't seem to register in Lance's dense mind, because he wasn't hesitant about getting them all fired up. The two parties had just been staring each other down until _he _decided to make a move – causing all hell to broke loose. Brianna couldn't help but think that she was going to be reduced to a corpse because of this moron.

Their enemies were quick to react to Lance's ground shaking, the majority of the gangsters setting off for him, opposed to the other mutants. He was pretty decent with keeping them away, knocking them down like bowling pins before they had the chance to get near. The only problem was that their endurance was great, and they always got right back up again, and his head was throbbing violently.

After around seventeen games of knocking them down, and then getting back up once again, he knew what he had to do, and that was create a remarkably large seismic wave. Then, they would have fallen pretty hard, earning him enough time to pack the others up and then they would make their get away. But, he was already drained, and when he let the huge tremor run through the ground, he relied on Kitty to phase him through the bat the guys began whacking him with. The guys didn't stay down as long as he though, and he couldn't fight for himself any longer.

"Lance!" Kitty said, shrilly, once she saw that he had collapsed. She saw three of the guys closing in on his body, and tried to get over to him as quickly as she could, but they had already commenced to thrashing into him, without any trace of a conscious.

Lance was weakly 'defending' himself by raising his arm into the air, as if it could be used as some sort of shield. It wasn't working. She could hear him letting out a grunt every time he was hit, but, luckily, she was able to pick his limp body up, and drag him away before an life-threatening damage could be done, managing to phase long enough to get herself and Lance into the Jeep. As they made their way, the thugs had tried to hit the couple, but gave up when they realized it was no use, with Kitty's phasing and all.

They didn't let them get into the car without a scratch, however, busting one of the headlights of Lance's 'baby.'

Kitty searched Lance's pockets for the key to his car, which was extremely difficult because he was lying in the backseat, refusing to move out of the position he found most comfortable. There was a slur of profanity when he heard the shattering of some glass, but it ceased when Kitty found the key and drove away. She was so glad to see that the guy with the knife had went after Pietro, instead of Lance, because if he had went after Lance, there was a good chance that he could be dead.

She knew that Brianna and Pietro were still out there, left alone with those creeps, but she firmly believed that they could take care of themselves. Pietro actually seemed to be enjoying his chance to show off for a bit. At first, he was reluctant about the whole fighting thing, but he soon shoveled those feelings and started having a jolly good time. Pietro wouldn't let them get a hold of Brianna, would be? He was fast enough to keep them off of her. And, Lance could be seriously injured – he certainly made it out that way, so she had no choice but to leave Brianna and Quicksilver to themselves.

"Should I, like, wait for them?" Kitty inquired, after already starting down the street.

Kitty knew what Lance's answer was when he groaned out of agony, so she kept on driving, though she bit onto her lip, in a worried manner. She knew that she had told herself that they could fend for themselves, but what if she was wrong?

Brianna was shocked to see Kitty leave, without even warning her. Wasn't Kitty supposed to be her _friend_? Even if she wasn't her friend, no one should treat a fellow human being that way… especially not Brianna.

She could hear Pietro going on with his tormenting.

"Wow, _look at me_!" Pietro exclaimed, standing on top of the smashed sports car. He had a bat, that he had taken from one of those attackers, in his hands, and he was striking the windshield with it, much like they had done before. "I'm _so_ cool!"

They tried getting him down from there by stabbing into his shins, or trying to grab onto them, but he swiftly moved out of the way.

One even climbed on top of the car with him, and swung his beefy fist towards Pietro's face, but, with his reflexes, Pietro ducked and toppled him off of the roof by pushing his midsection, powerfully.

"Listen, you mutated freak, if you don't get down, that girl is mine." This was the one that carried the knife, and he didn't look like the type of guy to break his word, so Brianna gasped. Before, she had been able to slink into the shadows and they didn't seem to pay her much attention. She didn't know why they didn't attack her with the rest of them, but she figured that they were saving her for later. She didn't even want to think about what they might be saving her for, because it sent shivers down her spine.

Pietro just stood in silence for a quick second, and, as if this guy was proving that he wasn't joking around, he hastily grabbed onto her, threatening to run the knife in his hands deep into her throat.

Pietro instantly knew what he was going to do, and that was take Brianna away from him before he could even have enough time to cut into the skin of her neck. But, when he lifted his foot to get off of the car and onto the ground, things complicated.

Two of them, coming from either sides, had grabbed onto his slender legs midair, and thrust him onto the ground, and his back audibly cracked with their force. They made him stay put, and Pietro wasn't even able to start up his feet, seeing as he was on his back and all, and help Brianna. He tried breaking free of their strong hold, but it wasn't working, for they had at least two hundred pounds on him.

Meanwhile, Brianna let out a whimper as the blade tickled her soft skin. Great – now Pietro was out. If Kitty didn't leave her, this wouldn't have happened in the first place. Kitty could get her out of this situation with ease. Kitty would pay. Oh, how Kitty would pay.

She snapped back to her present state, and realized that she did have an upper hand on the guy that was frightening her into believing that he would take her life. Brianna possessed the X-Gene, as she had heard so many people dub it, and if she tried, this guy was over with, or, at least, she could make him scamper off.

Brianna started up an illusion, first with difficulty. The stinging of her eyes had never been this dreadful before. It had been reasonably easy to create some useless illusion of a driver's license two hours ago, but now that her life was on the line, she had problems with it? Of course, that's just how things went for her.

She cried out, for she had felt the sharp pain of him starting in on her throat, and at that very moment her cry filled the night air, the man bringing pain upon her had seen his buddies transform into large, demonic wolf-men – she had seen this scene plenty of times in cheesy, werewolf films.

He dropped the knife and ran off in the other direction, just as she suspected he would. Anyone would, even the leader of this fierce gang, because those werewolves looked much less than friendly.

Tears flowed from her black orbs, because of all the irritation that had come to her eyes. Her eyes began clearing up, and she touched her neck to see how much damage had been done. It was just a scratch. It was bleeding, yes, but at least she was all right.

His followers scurried off after him. Their plan couldn't be fulfilled if they were short one very important person, and there was no telling what those mutants could do to them after their leader left.

"Wow," Pietro breathed, dusting himself off and staring at Brianna.

"Take me home!" she said, sounding upset, thumbing away her own tears.

And when she had arrived to her 'home,' everyone seemed to have smoke circling out of their bright red ears, like they were in a cartoon or something like that.

Professor Xavier had even told her that since she had disobeyed, that he was going to postpone her becoming of an X-Man even further, more specifically, until she learned the importance of the rules. Logan had made a snide remark about how he predicted that to be a very, very long time.

Brianna stood before her mirror, and her reflection angrily glared back at her. Brianna was fuming, not only because her make-up had drizzled down her cheeks because of her crying, making her appear to be some sort of drowned rodent, but she was going nowhere here at Xavier's Institute. She was never going to be an X-Man, and that was that, so why even stay any longer?

She knew there was room for her at the Brotherhood house – Pietro and Toad would welcome her with open arms, wouldn't they? There was also always the option of returning home, to Orange County, but she didn't feel like she could face her mother again. Her mother would gladly take her back, yes, probably saying something like, 'Oh, my doll has finally returned to her mama!', but there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she would try and cover up her mutation again, after all the progress she had made.

Whatever. Brianna would think on this later, but she knew that she was _not _going to serve an additional two months of probation as she had been told. She would simply refuse.

There was a more important issue at hand, and that was the hickey that stained her otherwise flawless skin. It was the size of New York itself, she swore, and it was pretty dark, as well. No concealer anything short of extraordinary was going to be able to hide that puppy, so she decided on wearing turtle necks until it dissolved, though it was nearing the summertime and turtle necks were no longer in style. This was horrible, but at least the bruise had engulfed the scratch she had received from the knife, making it barely noticeable.

Someone knocked on the door, and she grumpily granted them access.

There was Kitty, an apologetic look spread across her face. "Brianna, like, let me explain."

"Let you _explain_?" Brianna roared. "You know, you have other places to be. You should be down in the infirmary with that moron you risked my life to save!"

"Like, I thought Pietro had you covered, Brianna! It's not, like, my fault… you should've seen Lance! He was perfectly miserable! He, like, needed to get out of there before he died!"

"That's no excuse – leaving me there, defenseless," Brianna coldly replied, her eyes showing no emotion whatsoever. "Besides, I saw him down there, and he wasn't dying or anything! All he had was a couple of bruises and some swelling. It was no big deal! What could've happened to _me_ was, though – they were going to slit my throat! You could've helped me!"

"You weren't defenseless," Kitty fired back. "You had Pietro, and yourself. You're just, like, so selfish sometimes! If you saw Lance, then you should, like, know that they got him pretty good!"

"And he'll be returning to the Brotherhood tomorrow morning," Brianna finished for her. "He can't be that bad, Kitty."

Kitty sighed, and placed a hand on Brianna's tightened shoulder. Someone had to be the first to break, and it might as well be her. Brianna was too hardheaded. "Listen, I'm, like, so sorry, Bre. Won't you forgive me? You know that, like, I didn't think anything would happen to you… I promise."

Brianna just nodded, slowly. No, she hadn't forgiven Kitty, but she was itching to tell someone about her date with Pietro, so she softened her blow for a while, knowing that no one besides Kitty would be interested.

The next morning, as Toad and Blob glued their eyes to the television screen, and Wanda did whatever freaky things she did, all locked up in her room, Pietro and Lance talked. Pietro had come to tell Lance how pathetic he looked, having to stay in bed so his wounds could heal, but the conversation evolved, surprisingly.

"So, Pietro, what madeyou act like such a puss last night?" Lance wondered.

Pietro couldn't believe what came spilling out of his mouth. The only time he ever got all vulnerable like this was when he was trying to talk Wanda out of one of her breakdowns.

"I just… was afraid that she'd get hurt," he admitted. He braced himself for the laughter that was soon to come.

"And these feelings came before, or after, you gave her the giant hickey?" Lance chuckled, but stopped immediately, because just shaking in the slightest bit made pain run down his body.

Pietro sobered, getting back to his usual self. "After, of course. You can't start really feeling for a girl until you see what she's got, if you know what I mean. Besides, you don't think it was _that _big, do you?"

"You could see that thing from outer space, I swear."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution… like, at all. I don't even own them a _little _bit, okay?

Chapter Ten –

Scott Summers was outraged to hear what had just passed Brianna's lips, and he wore a face that proved it. They were cruising along in his car, for he was bringing her home from school, since Jean was off somewhere, leaving his passenger's seat open. He was doing her a great favor – giving her a lift – and this was how she repaid him? She repaid him by telling him that she was thinking of joining the Brotherhood?

It was all going fine – Brianna was giving him a report on how her day had been going so far. This report was filled with her encounters with people she had called 'fatties' and 'dirt bags' – and even though the name-calling bugged him, it didn't matter because of one of his favorite R.E.M. songs was playing, and he was happily drumming to the beat on his steering wheel.

Then, she wrecked it all by saying, "I'm really getting tired of this place. They aren't letting me live my life. It's like they're keeping me in one, big _cage_, and they're not even my parents. You know what, Scott? I should join the Brotherhood. No, really, I should. They do whatever they want, and don't have to worry about some baldie breathing down their necks."

"Wait, you want to become one of _them_?" Scott questioned, emphasizing 'them' as if they were the scum of the Earth – the gum off the bottom of his shoe. "It's just because of Pietro. It's no secret you guys are having some fling. Well, trust me, he'll be over you in two weeks – tops. And don't you think you deserve the punishment the Professor gave you? You snuck out, when you were already grounded! He was just being reasonable."

Scott was much like a brother to Brianna, but she hated it when he acted like one. He was all protective, but, of course, he was so loyal to Professor Xavier, that he had to be biased. Scott didn't have to talk about Pietro, though – it was really none of his business what went on between the two of them.

She said nothing, but instead shoved a cigarette into her mouth. Ah, sweet cancer on a stick – Pietro was right; it _was_ soothing. It was as if the cloud of smoke that issued from her mouth took all of her worries with it. With a single exhale, she felt better about everything that was going on around her.

"Who gave you that?" Scott asked, and grabbed onto it, then threw it into the wind, flashing her a concerned look.

"It's my life!" Brianna barked. "But if you must know, Pietro gave it to me, and he gave me more, too. He knows how much I need a stress reliever, living with all of you pricks!"

"There's no way I'm letting you join them, now. There's no telling what they'll have you started on next!"

Brianna brutally murdered the conversation by refusing to speak, just looking off into the distance, even when Scott told her that she was just being stupid.

When they got out of the car, Brianna tried to lose him by walking quickly, her flip-flops squeaking against the ground with every step, but he stopped her by placing his arms lightly around her in that caring type of way. "Brianna, I know what you're going through –"

At first, Brianna just gave him a sweet smile, as if she was happy about him helping her through her 'tough times,' but she then took advantage of him being so close by elbowing him, hard. "I can't talk now, Scott. I don't want to keep Logan waiting. He always looks so happy to tell me what to do, you know."

She gave him another one of her fake grins, but then left him to clutch his stomach.

Once she exchanged harsh words with Logan, and he told her to load the dishwasher and then mop the floor, she started her work. She wanted to talk to Pietro, and figured she could sneak a phone call without being caught. No one hung around the kitchen at this hour of the day, anyways; everybody had by then grabbed their snacks and tapped the cupboards dry of any junk food. Brianna was expected to wait, however, for Bobby was using the phone to flirt with his 'honey in Oregon.'

When he _did_ finish his talk, she took the phone from the hook and returned to the kitchen, to continue her duties as slave. She placed a plate into the dishwasher as the phone rang, cradling it between her chin and shoulder. She could multitask, couldn't she? She knew that if Logan saw her with the telephone like this, he would call her a 'slacker' or something like that, but that only made her want to do it more. There was nothing that made her day quite like seeing the great Wolverine frustrated.

"Hello?" boomed Fred. He startled her – being so thunderous and all – and she dropped a cup to the ground, but it had luckily been plastic.

_Great_. She picked up the cup. "Is Pietro there?"

"Yeah!"

"Can I _talk_ to him?" She rolled her eyes – Blob was such an idiot.

"Oh, yeah, all right, I guess. Just wait a second!"

"Mmkay," Brianna said, in a snobbish tone, as if she were superior. If Blob said one more thing, she was going to get to their house all by herself, wrap her fingers around his big, tree trunk of a neck – digging her fake nails into his fat as she did so – and strangle him.

"Give this to Pietro," she could hear Blob's muffled voice call out. He was probably too lazy to lift his enormous butt from the couch, or wherever he happened to be sitting at that moment.

"Oh, snookums! You couldn't keep your mind off of me after our last meeting, snookums?" Toad had taken another try at a 'sexy' voice, and it only made Brianna squirm, uncomfortably.

She didn't reply at all, for a second, asking herself, 'What's the worst possible thing I could say to this green-skinned thing on the other end?' She didn't really come up with anything. "Listen, wart face, I know that's what your wildest dreams are about and everything, but hand the phone over to Pietro." She then heard him noisily bouncing up the creaky stairs and into Pietro's room.

"Toad, can't you see that I'm in the _middle_ of something? I mean, c'mon, there's babes all over me!"

"No, there—" Toad started to protest, but then Pietro ripped the phone from his slimy hands.

Brianna raised her eyebrows in mild interest. She knew what this was about. She could remember how she and Pietro had fought that day at lunch, when he whipped out a brand new Sidekick and gave her one of those boastful looks.

"What were you thinking?" she had screeched, and everyone looked to them, wondering what all the commotion was about. "You could have at least bought me one, too – after making me lose my cell phone and all!"

Pietro had furrowed his brow. "Hey, I didn't make you lose _anything_! You were stupid enough to lose it all by yourself!"

Brianna wasn't sure why they always fought like this… it was as if they were an old, married couple, which was especially weird to her because they weren't even officially dating yet. "Who was the one that made me get out of that car so fast – like it was on fire or something?"

Trying to avoid answering that question, he dodged himself with, "You know what? You're just jealous!"

"Jealous of what?" she howled. At that point, she was really into the fight. She even had her fingers clenched into a fist, ready to send it flying at any given moment.

"That someone has something better than you!" The bell then rang, and Pietro pushed in his chair with a slam.

She was over the fight – it was long gone, in her mind, so why couldn't he get over it? She figured that he just had a lot of growing up to do.

"Like I said, I'm a little busy right now, so why don't you bother someone else," Pietro sneered. "Just stay out of my hair."

Brianna's cheeks flushed in rage. "Oh, you mean that white as snow thing on top of your freakishly oversized head?"

"_No_, I mean the gorgeous, slick thing on top of my perfectly normal head, that you always rake those make-up stained fingers through when you're forcing me to make out with you!"

"Oh, snap!" Toad exclaimed, and laughed his aggravating little laugh. "Would you like some _ice_ with that burn?"

"Okay, okay, first of all, you don't have any girls there with you, so stop lying. Nobody would want you. And, who was the one who suggested we get into the janitor's closet before fifth period today?"

"Oh, excuse me, I need to brush my teeth after all of that spit-swapping I just did with all those _other _girls!" Pietro put her on hold, and Toad's remake of the chorus to Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl" began to play, making Brianna cringe.

Actually, Pietro didn't brush his teeth, but instead sat next to the phone until he felt an appropriate amount of time had passed – which happened to be five and a half seconds.

"Well, what about you, then?" Pietro inquired.

"What do you mean?"

"You _said_ no one would ever want me," he came back with. "And that's not what I heard you saying the other night. 'Oh, Pietro, yes, oh, yes… do me right here!'"

He had mimicked her voice in such a ridiculous, prissy way that she couldn't contain her laughter. "I never said anything like that to you. And to answer your question, I don't want anyone that doesn't want me, so, no, I guess I don't want you."

Pietro just said, "Hardy-har-har." He hated when she pouted. It was rather bothersome, and not cute at all. "So, what'd you call for?"

"Well, I don't want to hold you back from all those imaginary 'babes.' But, anyways, I was bored, so continue to amuse me."

His lips tugged into a minor smirk. "Come over, and I _will_."

Oh, what a bad influence Pietro was being. And to think, Brianna was certain that she was the only individual short of angelic in Bayville, New York, upon first arriving. Why was he trying to tempt her into breaking the rules, on yet another occasion? He must want her to be doomed forever more. "No, I can't, but, hey, is there an open room over there?"

"Yeah, my room is open to you anytime, baby girl!" Toad said, still hunched over Pietro's shoulder, listening in.

"Get out!" Pietro yelled, and things were being thrown. She wasn't sure what was being thrown, exactly, but it chased him away. Could they be more careless as to what happened to their place?

Once Toad had given into Pietro's wrath, Pietro locked his bedroom door, and then returned to the phone, which he had positioned on his bed.

"Why didn't you do that sooner?" she nagged. "Why'd you let him listen to our conversation like that?"

"I'm teaching him," Pietro retorted, not really painting an image for Brianna.

"Teaching him _what_?"

"I'm teaching him how to talk to girls, okay? He needs some help, in case you haven't already noticed!"

Brianna snorted. She was surprised that Pietro would be kind enough to do something like that, but she figured that he had to give into Toad, living with him, and all. She could just picture it then, Todd asking Pietro to coach him on how to talk to girls every five seconds until Pietro finally caved.

"Well, _anyways_, we don't have an empty room, but we do have a couch, that isn't being used right now, since none of Lance's buddies are in town at the moment. He brings the biggest moochers here, I swear."

Brianna couldn't even visualize herself camping out on their revolting couch, knowing that the rest of the Brotherhood slept soundly upstairs, in comfy beds. She deserved a bed more than Blob or Toad, and she was sure about that. If she were to move in, one of them would just have to give up their room to her.

"Why?" Pietro asked her, in the midst of her thinking.

"I may move soon. I'm getting tired of this place, and all of these losers." She knew that the Brotherhood held more losers than the Mansion did, even if the Mansion outnumbered the Brotherhood a lot, but at least the Brotherhood losers wouldn't critique her on every wrong move she made. If anyone was going to be critiquing at the Brotherhood, it would probably be her.

"I know you would get sick of it – sooner or later. You just don't seem like you fit in there."

"Oh, and you think I'd fit in with you guys any better? Well, I wouldn't. I don't fit in anywhere, except for California. People _love_ me there… I have so many friends there that it's hard to keep track. That's where I need to go." She took what Pietro had said offensively – what made him even _think_ that she would be more suited living with _them_? They were gross, and at least the Mansion was sanitary.

"Don't," Pietro shortly pleaded, in a way that seemed halfway loving, and it tugged at her heart a little bit, because they hadn't really had one of those moments up until then. She _was _Brianna Ranae Contrares, but not even she could be completely heartless after hearing that.

"You should say stuff like that more often," Brianna gushed. He should, right? Brianna felt as if she needed to be complimented – even if the compliment wasn't direct or anything – by him more often.

Embarrassed, Pietro scoffed. "Don't expect too much. Just see what it's like here, though, and if it's not for you, do whatever you want. I don't care."

"You don't care?" She sounded a little bit disappointed.

"_No_, no, haha, uhm… I just meant that I can't stop you from doing what you want to do." He pounded his head against his wooden bed frame. How could he say something like that? But, he figured that the she would like to hear the whole 'I can't stop you from doing what you want to do' thing.

"Oh," Brianna said, calming down a bit. This talk was beginning to bore her, so she felt the strong need to get off of the phone. "I'm going to go, so, see you."

She placed the phone on the receiver, not waiting for his, "Bye."

And, so, days went by and she hadn't made much progress on deciding where she wanted to stay – where she felt she belonged, though this was always on her mind. Actually, where she belonged wasn't really a part of it, because if she got to stay where she felt she belonged, she'd be lounging around the best penthouse the United States had to offer. There would be a Chihuahua occupying her lap, and a strikingly handsome French underwear model occupying her lips.

Brianna did like how everyone seemed to be buttering her up now that she was making her decision, though. Kitty was now telling her how great she looked every time she emerged from her room looking different in the slightest, even when she was wearing no make-up on her face, and even Brianna said herself that she was 'all make-up.' This was a confidence booster; though she probably didn't need it… it was only feeding her ego, and blowing it up to a remarkable size. Pietro had even made all of his drooling, crazed fan girls shoo, leaving Brianna and him alone to their table. This pleased her, even though she thought he should've done that a long time ago, and even though the majority of their time at lunch was spent arguing over random things, anyways. She was beginning to think that this was Pietro's way of showing that he liked having her around – by disagreeing with everything that came flying out of her mouth.

Oddly enough, the side she had been favoring wasn't buttering her up at all, and that was the side of Orange County. On the contrary, her mother hadn't even sent her the money for a new phone, and Nykky, who had been one of Brianna's closest friends for thirteen years, hadn't been returning her e-mails.

One Friday night, however, Beast told her that she had a phone call from her mom. These were the only phone calls that Brianna, or any other grounded people were permitted to take, because Xavier couldn't very well cut off all communication with parents, unless he wanted to cause a huge uproar.

"Oh, Brianna, darling!" her mother greeted, her Spanish accent heavy.

Her accent and slur of words always became noticeable when she was distressed, so Brianna knew what was coming. Her mother had somehow lost money, because money was what fueled Delia Parker's happiness. This must mean that she was getting a divorce. Why? Hadn't her mother and the well-known stockbroker William Parker had a decent relationship? Her mom actually seemed to _like_ him, unlike most of her previous husbands.

"Baby… I'm going to get right to it. Mama is getting a divorce, okay, and she needs you to come home."

Brianna's jaw nearly hit the floor. "W-What?" She knew that she had been thinking about going back to Orange County, anyways, but now that she was _actually _going to leave, she wasn't sure if she was okay with it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** Yeah, I know it's a shocker to you guys, but I still do not own X-Men: Evolution.

**Chapter Eleven –**

"Yes, mother," Brianna said after hours of talking and arguing with her mom, sounding a bit defeated. The next three sentences that came from her were rather forced. She didn't want to say them, but she knew that if she didn't, only more trouble would follow. "No, I understand. I love you, too. Goodbye."

She gloomily slumped the phone back onto the hook, and started off for her room. Ray was fussing about Brianna being too lazy to click over when someone else called in, but she didn't even care.

"Hey!" Kitty said when she saw Brianna, but that cheerfulness in her voice vanished when she noticed the sadness etched across Brianna's features. "What's wrong?"

"I'm going home," Brianna replied, not looking to Kitty as she said it.

"Wait, what… like, you decided?" Kitty tried to hide the fact that she was furious. She couldn't believe it, though… she had finally found that cool best friend she had always been wishing for, and now she was just going to pack up her things and ditch her before things even got that good between them?

"No, I didn't _decide_ anything. My mom did. She's getting a divorce and needs me to be there for her."

"Oh." Kitty paused, not so sure if she should say what she was itching to say to her friend. "Well, why does she, like, need you? Didn't you say that she, like, wasn't all that into this guy?"

Brianna shot her the most poisonous look ever cast, and then walked off as she said, "She kind of liked this one! This isn't the time to be making fun of my family!"

Kitty sighed, audibly. She knew that she should've kept her lips locked, but she went against that instinct and did it anyways. Now, she had made Brianna horribly mad, and no good could come of that.

"No, Brianna!" Kitty called after her, trying to catch up and murmuring an apology when she got close enough for Brianna to hear.

A couple of days later, when Brianna was waiting in line to get her lunch, Pietro chattering into her ear about something stupid, she realized that she couldn't keep the news from him forever, as much as she wanted to. School was ending in a couple of weeks, and she was scheduled to return to California the day after summer vacation began. She had to let him know, and she had to do it right then and there, before she had the chance to tell herself that waiting might be a better idea.

"So, then, Blob stepped on my shoes and there was mud on his feet so I—" Pietro had been babbling.

"I'm going back to California," she blurted out, interrupting him midsentence.

"Huh?" Pietro hadn't really heard what she said, because his mind had been set on his little story. It had to be important, though, because he thought that his story was quite entertaining, and he knew that no one would interrupt a story like that unless something really significant was on their mind.

"I said that I'm going back to California…" She looked down to her feet, not wanting to see his face drop in sorrow. She wasn't sure if it would – he was kind of a jerk sometimes, but just in case it did, she made sure not to peer into his eyes.

"_What_?"

"It wasn't my choice, Pietro," she snapped.

"And who's choice _was _it, then?" Pietro snapped back, only it was obvious by the way he talked that he was far angrier than Brianna was. "That drunk mother of your's? Oh, _there's _a great person to have running your life!"

Brianna got in his face, not caring to meet his mean eyes, now. "Well, for your _information_, she's my mother, so I kind of _have _to listen to what she says. What she says goes. But, of course, you wouldn't know a thing about a normal parent-child relationship, because—"

Pietro was glad to hear the lady working the lunch line tell Brianna that it was her turn to order, because he knew what she was going to say next. Brianna would coldly bring up how horrible Pietro's father is, and he just wasn't in the mood, already upset with her.

She didn't even wait by his window, for him to get his corn dog. She just proceeded to their table.

When Pietro smacked his tray onto the table, cracking the cheap, pink plastic it had been made out of, Brianna flinched.

"Stop," she growled. "You're being selfish."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry that I care. I guess I won't do that anymore."

"Yeah, well…" She couldn't think of anything to fire back with, so after moments of fighting it, she let a meek, "I'm sorry, okay?" escape from her mouth.

"All right." He knew that Brianna wouldn't appreciate the glorious expression he had going – he finally won one of their little brawls – so he pretended to be extremely interested in the stick that held his corn dog.

After school, Pietro's body was stretched out on the living room floor of the Brotherhood Boarding House. He was thinking about what he could do to make Brianna stay without seeming like a total emotional girly man.

"Get up!" Toad instructed, hopping up and down, excitedly. "Get up! Lance needs to get Kitty a birthday present, yo. We're gonna help him – everybody is – and I thought we'd stop by Victoria's Secret, and, well, y'know!"

Lance frowned, spinning his key ring around his finger. "No one's helping me, so stay where you are. You've been sitting there ever since we got home – being all quiet, so it would just be a waste to stop all of that now."

Pietro popped up from his spot, and quickly got to his feet. "Wait! I know, uh, what Kitty wants. Take me with you and I'll show you."

"Why don't you just tell me what it is so I can pick it up myself?" Lance suggested, shaking his hair from his eyes. He opened the front door, letting daylight pour into the house.

Wanda could be heard screeching out in protest. This light was a new thing to her, having been all cooped up in the darkness for such a long time. She hadn't even been to school in two weeks – she just sat around, and Lance got the idea that she lost that freaky boyfriend of her's.

Apparently, she had also sprouted a nice pair of fangs, as well, because Fred screamed out in fright. "She's a vampire! I told ya!"

"Well, I could do that, Lance, but, no," Pietro said, wanting to get out of this insane asylum and ask Lance what he should do to get Brianna to stay. He darted out of the house, passing him by in the doorway. Lance's hair flew right back into his eyes, and he irritably shook the loose strands out of his eyes once again, before joining Pietro in the Jeep.

He noticed the skid mark that Pietro had created, leading up to the side of his car. This was a familiar sight to Lance, for Pietro was constantly running at full speed and then abruptly stopping, leaving these sort of marks every here and there. This particular skid mark was especially dark, though, and made him wonder if Pietro's sneakers were okay.

"What did you really come for?" Lance asked, suspiciously, as they casually browsed the girl's section of Abercrombie.

Pietro wasn't really ready to ask Lance for his advice, so he just brushed the question off by motioning to some stylish jacket. "Can you believe it? This is over one hundred dollars, and it's not even nice. Wow."

"I repeat – what did you really come here for?" Lance was sure that Pietro wouldn't tag along with him and try to help out of the goodness in his heart.

Lance saw, out of the corner of his eye, an employee giving him a hard look, as she refolded some polos, as if he was about to whip out a gun, rob the store of all it's goods, and then kidnap any wandering child.

"Let's get out of here," Lance said, making haste. "This place makes me dizzy."

"Did you see the way that chick looked at me?" Lance asked him, after selecting a table at the food court. "It's as if they think I'm a criminal or something."

Pietro kept in a snicker, and he kept in all the words he was thinking, about how Lance _was _a criminal, and how he probably deserved those looks he received.

"What is it that makes people think they're so much better than me, huh?" Lance said, and this one didn't happen to be a rhetorical question.

"Maybe it's your hair, or your clothes." Pietro seemed more than happy to supply Lance with the flaws of his appearance.

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"It's just that it's getting greasy and it's just not all that attractive."

Pietro felt everything shake a little bit, and could clearly see that Lance was the culprit.

"Hey, calm down!" Pietro shouted, grabbing onto any limb of Lance's that he could reach, which happened to be an arm, and he squeezed it the hardest he could, until the shaking stopped. "We're on the second floor, you idiot. If you mess with the bottom floor – we're going down. I don't feel like dying today. Thanks."

"Oh, really?" Lance asked, raising a single eyebrow and taking a sip at his Orange soda. "You've been acting like you don't care if you live or die, lately – moping around."

"What are you trying to say – you think I'm suicidal or something?" Pietro laughed at the mere thought. "Why would _I _want to die? I mean, c'mon. I can see someone like you wanting to die or whatever, but I have a pretty good life."

"Oh, yeah, and _great _hair to match. You know, I've got better hair than you ever will. What's with the two flippy things?"

"It's natural," Pietro muttered. His eyes swept off and then stopped at some cute redhead, who giggled when she saw him looking. Pietro winked.

"What's with that?" Lance was surprised. He actually thought that Pietro only had eyes for Brianna for a while, but he guessed that he was wrong.

"What's with what?"

"You winked at that girl."

"What's it to you?" Pietro said, but then gulped, letting his guard down a little bit. "Brianna's moving back to California. I might as well get over her, right?"

"So, that's what you're all sad about." Lance's lips slowly separated and curved into a smile, and there was a twinkle in his eye, as if he was happy to see Pietro suffering.

"What are you smiling at?"

"You guys are just alike – so full or yourselves and completely unbearable."

"Yeah, thanks," Pietro shook his head, and set his focus on the redhead again, who was whispering with a friend, occasionally looking over to him.

"What are you going to do?" Lance questioned.

"What do you mean?" Pietro opened the lid to his soft drink, and scooped out some ice with his hands, throwing it into his mouth and grinding it into tiny bits with his teeth. The girl he had been flirting with didn't seem to find this very attractive, because she then lost interest.

"What are you going to do to get her to stay?" Lance clarified.

"What _should_ I do? It's me against her mom – what could I possibly do?" Pietro was pleased that he didn't have to bring it all up. This way, he didn't have to appear to be the desperate loser that asked for relationship help.

"Maybe you should buy her something."

That wasn't exactly the brilliant guidance that Pietro was wishing Lance would enlighten him with. "Do you have anything better than that? 'Oh_, please_, Brianna, don't leave me! Here's a teddy bear.'"

Lance leaned back in his seat. "Well, it wouldn't be a stupid teddy bear, that's for sure. She'd probably take that as an insult – giving her anything less then a couple hundred bucks."

"Yeah, probably… Dad's barely giving me enough to take care of all you losers." He reached into his pant pocket for a crumpled pack of Camels. Getting what Pietro was trying to say, Lance nodded and joined him outside the mall for a smoke.

"I thought you were going to quit," Pietro noted, after seeing him exhaling the smoke in a passing girl's direction.

"I just said that to make Kitty shut up." Lance smirked.

Pietro couldn't help but wonder if Lance was really the type of guy he should be going to when he needed help with a girl. Sure, Lance loved Kitty and all, but he made his share of dumb moves. "Any other suggestions? I'm not buying anything."

Lance thought. "You can tell her how you feel."

After taking a long, thoughtful drag, Pietro shouted, "No way!" Pietro wasn't about to trip all over himself for Brianna… not for anyone.

"Well, you're not going to get anywhere if you won't do anything." Lance grumbled. "Well, have you guys had sex yet?"

Pietro blinked multiple times. Were they supposed to have gotten that far yet? He wanted to know, but he wasn't about to ask. He definitely didn't want to be known as the guy who 'liked to take things slow.'

"You haven't?" Lance stifled a laugh.

"What's so funny about that?" Even though Lance was trying to keep a straight face, it was obvious to Pietro that he found humor in this.

"I'm just surprised." Lance took a break from the conversation to breathe smoke into yet another unfortunate, glaring woman's face. Once that was over with, and he had successfully ticked her off, he turned his back head over to Pietro. "I would think that you would… Brianna just seems a little slutty."

He wasn't about to deny this statement, because it would just make him seen like a naïve fool, and he knew that she was better than anyone. "Maybe so, but at least she can form sentences."

"Kitty's smarter than people give her credit for. But, anyways, maybe you should try hooking up with her. Maybe that will make her stay… actually, I _bet_ it will."

Pietro wasn't sure if that was a good or bad idea, but he liked it, and it wasn't costly, so it was worth a shot. In the matter of one minute, he had formulated a plan.

Since she was grounded and wasn't granted any visitors, he would have to sneak his way into Xavier's, by speeding in while the gates were open. The gates would be released for the kids when they were coming home from school, so he would follow Scott and Jean or whoever into the Mansion, without them knowing, of course. He wouldn't stop running until he found Brianna or her room. Pietro had an idea where her room was, having seen her exit the building out of her window before. He wouldn't be seen when he was running in – he'd done it before, when he was delivering a message from Mystique.

"Okay." Pietro tossed the cigarette to the concrete beneath his feet, and put it out with his shoe, in such a manner that made him look like he was squishing an especially annoying bug.

When he looked over to Lance, he could see a brand new cigarette dangling from his mouth. Lance was trying to light it, and when his lighter finally decided to cooperate, he let out a sigh of contentment.

"Hurry up," Pietro whined, impatiently. Who smoked two cigarettes in a row? Now that he got what he wanted out of this mall trip, all he wanted to do was get out of there and stop looking around.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** I don't own X-Men: Evolution, fools.

Okay, and, if you're reading this, please review. I've got so many hits, and so little reviews. Thank you very much.

Also, I think I'll be needing a beta reader or whatever you guys call it, because I've noticed when I'm looking over some of the chapters that there are a few mistakes every here and there. So, yeah, if you're interested – let's talk. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

**Chapter Twelve –**

Pietro's eyes scanned the courtyard before him. His legs were resting on the steering wheel of Lance's Jeep, and one might think that he would be accompanied by someone else – like Lance, who never left Pietro alone in his Jeep after an incident that included Pietro going to the grocery store with it, and somehow ripping the dashboard out of place. But, Lance wasn't about to pass up having Pietro fork over that old, junky iPod of his, even if it did mean letting him use the Jeep after school that fine, Thursday afternoon.

What was it that Pietro was looking for? A pair of students – one being Scott Summers, and the other being Jean Grey. They were going to lead him into Xavier's, and from there, when they opened the gates, he would speed inside. He thought that he was going to be able to find them with ease, Jean's hair being such a remarkably bright red color and everything, but it didn't turn out to be as effortless as he thought. Where could they possibly be?

Just when Scott and Jean stepped outside of the school and started off for Scott's sports car, Pietro became distracted. He watched as Lance, Blob, and Toad started on down a sidewalk nearby, headed for a bus stop. He almost felt sorry for them, until he remembered what he was gaining from all of this. He would be rolling around with Brianna soon enough.

His eyes snapped back to their original place when he caught a glimpse of big, red hair. There was Jean, her arms linked in Scott's, and they were so close that they could bite him. He half-expected them to do that exactly, the way that they were glaring at him as they got into the car, but they didn't.

They whizzed out of the parking lot, and Pietro was watching them as they did so. He was having doubts about all of this, when he realized how hard it was going to be to follow them without being noticed. Before, he had thought of just running to the Mansion after school ended, and then waiting for someone to arrive and to open the gates. But, he knew that was a long, long distance… even for him. This just seemed smarter to him, at the time, so after he gave them a couple of seconds to make their way out of Bayville High, he followed after that shiny red car of their's. There was enough distance in between the two vehicles that made Pietro believe that he wouldn't be seen, and it turned out that he was correct, much to his delight.

Once they got close enough to the Mansion, and he felt comfortable with having to run the rest of the way, he dropped Lance's Jeep off at some grocery store. He'd get it later. He darted along the street that led to Xavier's, and, not to his surprise at all, he had arrived before Scott and Jean did. This was a good thing, because this way, he would definitely get in, but it was a bad thing, as well, because Pietro didn't enjoy waits.

To a normal human being, Pietro's wait wouldn't seem very long, but to Pietro, it was as if his entire life was passing him by as he hid behind some bushes.

Two minutes after Pietro's appearance before the gates, Scott and Jean had come rolling on up, and as Scott did all of the things necessary in opening those gates, Pietro hunched forward in the bushes, ready to get going.

When the gates opened far enough for Pietro to enter, he dashed to the best of his capabilities, and before the couple could even start up the path that led to the Mansion, Pietro had already flashed up the stairs, all in a blur of brown and blue, like his clothing.

He stopped his feet when he reached the second floor, because he didn't see anyone around. When he passed by each of the doors, he tried to look for any sign that might indicate that one of the doors might be Brianna's, but when he didn't find any, he became bothered. He wanted to just burst each of the doors open, and check for her, but he couldn't very well do that, unless he wanted to get caught.

Pietro was pressing his ear against one of the doors, when the sound of footsteps down the hall startled him. He looked around for somewhere to hide, but he was too late. Scott had already seen him, and was standing just a few feet away from him.

"LOG—" Scott had started to holler, but Pietro came up from behind him and clasped his hand over Scott's mouth.

Scott tried to raise his arms and adjust the side of his sunglasses, but Pietro shoved him away before he could do anything. Cyclops twirled around, after being shoved, and Pietro could tell that he was giving him a venomous look -- even if he couldn't see his eyes -- by the way his face tightened in rage.

"I don't need to use my powers to take you down," Scott hissed, lunging forward, but Pietro moved over and Scott fell, and his chin, which was the first to come crashing to the ground, received a rug burn.

"What did you come here for, anyways?" Scott said, when he got back to his feet. It didn't seem like Pietro really wanted to fight, because he would've brought his lackies with him if he did.

"Just tell me where Brianna's room is."

"Why?" Scott asked, not really liking where this was going. Why did Pietro want into Brianna's room? What made Pietro think that _he_ would tell _him_? They weren't exactly on the best terms. "No!"

"I'm not going to hurt her." Pietro folded his arms over his chest. "I just need to talk to her, okay, Goggle Boy?"

"Listen to me, she's not interested. She's leaving in a couple of weeks, so she doesn't need you in her life anymore, just making things more hectic. Her life is complicated enough as it is. Now, go back home where all you losers come from, and you won't get hurt."

"You think I don't know that her life is hectic?" Pietro rolled his eyes. "Just to let you know, _you're_ the ones that she doesn't need. All you do is try and make her into a female version of yourself."

"What are you trying to make her into, then? Everyone knows the only reason you're talking to her is because you need another member to make the Brotherhood a _little _less pathetic."

"Where is she?" Pietro was trying to keep his voice down, but he was tired of wasting his time with Scott, which made it difficult.

"_What_ do you need her for?"

"What are you – her father? Ugh. Listen, Scott." That's when it struck him. Scott was a good guy, right? Scott would probably tell him where she was if he told a good sob story, right? Pietro tried to visibly soften, by unfolding his arms from his chest, and dropping his shoulders into a more relaxed position. "It's just that I never really had the chance to tell her how I feel, okay? _Despite_ what you think, I actually care about her, and I need to talk to her right now. Not at school – right now. C'mon, cut me some slack." Pietro was doing a great job at acting, considering that behind that straight face he was keeping, he was laughing, hysterically. Who said this type of stuff?

Scott sighed. "That's all, right? You're just going to talk to her?" Scott wasn't sure… Pietro seemed pretty sincere, and Scott knew that if Brianna heard that he had fought Pietro off, she would be pissed. Scott didn't know if he could afford to lose her friendship – since he only had about three friends, now that everyone knew that he was a mutant. Maybe everyone would stop thinking he had a stick up his ass if he let this slide.

Pietro nodded, attempting an innocent smile, and Scott gave in. "Her room number is twenty-six. That's on the Girls' Wing -- on the other side of the staircase."

He watched as Pietro ran off, feeling worried, more than anything. What if the Professor found out that Scott had let Pietro roam around so freely? He felt a little better knowing that the Professor was currently out of town, having a meeting with some mutant's rights activists. So, at least, the Professor wouldn't know for now, since he did have a two-mile radius and all. There wouldn't be any hiding it if the Professor read his mind when he came back, though, but it brought him more relief to know that the Charles Xavier believed that it was rude to read someone's mind without their permission. Oh, well. It was all said and done now, but if he changed his mind; he could always break into Brianna's room and chase Pietro out with a few optic blasts.

Pietro's hand was on the doorknob of room number twenty-six, when he felt someone else's hand on the other side, trying to open the door. He let go of the knob, and was glad to see that it was Brianna.

"What are you –" she started to say, when Pietro moved her out of the way and closed the door behind the two of them.

"—doing?" she finished, looking a little dazed after that lightning-speed movement.

Pietro didn't answer her question, deciding that it would be best to get right to it. He grabbed onto her sides and started to kiss her, the way he always did. Most people start the kiss off slow and then, gradually, it got faster, but he just cut to the fast part. It was a little odd to Brianna at first, but she had gotten used to it, and obliged, closing her eyes and kissing him back.

Before they even had the chance to really start getting into the kiss, Pietro had moved over to her bed, and pinned her underneath him. When he craned his neck to continue making out with her, she moved her head away. He tried again, thinking that she had just made a mistake, but she did it again, so his lips landed on her cheek, instead of his target, which had been her lips.

"What?" Pietro hissed.

"_What_ are you doing?" she said, shifting underneath him, uncomfortably.

He just gaped at her, not replying at all.

"What are you doing here?" she tried.

No reply, again, and he just kept on gaping, as if not believing the words that were _actually _coming from her mouth.

"Okay…" She let out a sigh, and let him continue to kiss her, and even let him remove her shirt. After that, he kept on kissing her, and she started to enjoy his company again, but when she felt his rough fingertips start running up her sides and fumbling with the clasps of her bra, she pushed him away, and he fell to the floor.

"What do you think you're doing?" she screeched, pulling her shirt back on.

"_Shut_ up, _shut_ up," Pietro whispered, not wanting to be heard. He joined her on the bed, once again, but, this time, he placed his hands in his pockets, as if to restrain them from wandering where they were no longer welcomed.

"What did you think you were doing?" She obeyed, and was talking in a whisper, as well. "I'm not a skank, you know! I haven't known you that long!"

Pietro placed his hands over her his eyes in slight embarrassment, though he did find it funny how she said that she wasn't a whore, since everyone else seemed to think differently.

"Why? Why?" With every single question, her voice was raising, threatening to let his prescence be known. "Why? Why? _Why_? Did you think I'd actually let you?"

Pietro's eyes widened in complete irritation. Did she have to keep on asking 'why' over and over? "I thought it would make you stay, all right!" Pietro burst.

"Oh." She smiled, widely, as if that single statement had changed him from a pig into a total sweetheart.

Pietro grumbled something that she couldn't understand, and would never get to understand, because in that moment, Scott suddenly came into the room. He was looking angry, so it had become obvious that he changed his mind about allowing all of this.

Before Pietro even had the chance to move off of the bed, red beams were shooting off in his direction, ruining the new comforter that Brianna had just recently purchased.

Brianna could be heard crying out in protest – and Pietro wasn't sure if she was crying out because his safety was being put on the line, or if it was because Scott was ruining that comforter of her's, but he didn't pay it much mind, because he needed to find a way to get out of there before the rest of those stupid X-Men ganged up on him. Usually, Pietro was confident about his abilities, and he knew that he had great control, but even he had to back off this time, knowing that he didn't stand a chance against all of these mutants at once, without any back up to speak of.

He ran off, fast as he possibly could, with those red lights following him. They were no match for his speed, however, and he made it all the way to the grounds that surrounded the Mansion before meeting another problem. The gate wasn't opening, and he didn't understand why. It had opened for Brianna when she got near, that night of their first date, so, at first, he thought that maybe the problem was that he had been moving too fast for the sensors to detect, and he stopped himself completely. It didn't work; the gate stayed put. They must have made some changes in the security after that little incident.

He turned around, to see the X-Men were close behind him. There was one X-Man missing – Shadowcat, and he knew that she was to thank when the gates opened, granting him access to the area on the outside. Even though Kitty didn't act like it, there was always something that told Pietro that she was secretly rooting for Brianna and his relationship.

It didn't shock anyone when he ran through the gap, at such a pace that made them know that they wouldn't be able to catch up, and they should just give up. It wasn't that big of a deal, anyways… he'd just snuck in to see Brianna. It could've been worse.

When Pietro came to a stop, and looked back to make sure that he'd lost them, he could still see the Mansion off in the distance. The strange thing was that when he looked at it, he didn't feel failure, like he probably should have. He didn't get in Brianna's pants like he had wished, but he got his point across -- though he got it across with a bit of reluctance, and he knew that she would put that into consideration. He just hoped that she knew that he really _did _want her to stay, and that he wasn't just playing her like he'd done so many times before.


End file.
